Contact details

Professor Lord Ara Darzi KBE HonFrEng FmedSci

Professor of Surgery
Division of Surgery, Oncology, Reproductive Biology and Anaesthetics

Tel: +44 (0)20 7886 1310
Email:

Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham KBE

Professor Darzi studied medicine in Ireland and qualified from the Royal College of Surgeons. He obtained his fellowship in Surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and a M.D. degree from Trinity College, Dublin. He was subsequently granted the fellowships of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, The American College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians of Glasgow and of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. More recently he was awarded fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences and City and Guilds of London Institute and an honorary fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Professor Darzi was knighted by the Queen as a Knight Commander of the most excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) in December 2002.

Currently Professor Darzi holds the Chair of Surgery Imperial College London where he is head of the Division of Surgery, Oncology, Reproductive Biology and Anaesthetics. He is an Honorary Consultant Surgeon at St. Mary's Hospital NHS Trust. He holds the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery at the Royal Marsden Hospital. He held the office of the Tutor in Minimal Access Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in England where he set the national guidelines in education and training in Minimal Access Surgery.  He was also a Council member of the Association of Coloproctologist of Great Britain and Ireland, The Association of Endoscopic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Society of Minimal Invasive Therapy.

Professor Darzi's main clinical and academic interest is in minimal invasive therapy, including imaging and biological research together with investigating methods to measure core competencies of surgery objectively. He has published widely in the field of minimally invasive therapy. In the past he has been a Hunterian Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the James The IV travelling fellow for 1999/2000. He has also delivered many prestigious named lectures in the past the most notable ones are, the Robert Smith Lecture, The Zachary-Cope Lecture, The Sylvester O'Halron lecture, Sir Peter Freyer Lecture, the Hunterian e-Master Class and the Faraday Lecture (Royal Society).

Professor Darzi and his team are internationally respected for their innovative work in the advancement of minimal invasive surgery and in the development and use of allied technologies including surgical robots and image-guided surgery. This work has received international recognition including the Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence in 2004. Professor Darzi actively pursues, and relentlessly campaigns for, the need for improved inter-disciplinary research with a closer integration of information technology, biotechnology and physical sciences. He leads a team of researchers engaged in a number of fundamental research issues related to the future development of minimally invasive surgery as well as covering a wide spectrum of engineering and basic sciences research topics encompassing Medical Image Computing, Biomedical Engineering, Clinical Safety, Robotics, Man-Machine Interfacing, Virtual/Augmented Reality and Bio-Medical Simulation.

The innovative work of Professor Darzi and his team in education and assessment of surgeons, including the use of simulations and virtual reality, is internationally recognised as showing the way forward for surgical education. They were awarded in 2001 the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Excellence in Higher and Further Education in recognition for achievements in pioneering new technologies to address training requirements for trainee surgeons, surgeons in post and other professionals.

Professor Darzi’s contribution to the NHS has been substantial. He was elected to the London Modernisation Board – now the National Leadership Network - by the Secretary State for Health and currently advises the government on Modernising the NHS and is advisor in surgery to the Department of Health. He has led on difficult issues related to reconfiguration of surgical services at Kidderminster Hospital and the North East.  He published the national guidelines for day care surgery and in his role as Chair of the National centre for Innovations in Elective Care is involved in setting the future model of Diagnostic Treatment Centres.