A surgical pioneer: an interview with Sir Ara Warkes Darzi, KBE

Professor Ara Darzi was recently appointed to the post of UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary. He is a world-renowned surgeon, a life peer as Lord Darzi of Denham, and a Knight Commander of the most excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). These accolades are the direct result of an impressive medical career: he is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Ireland, and Edinburgh, of the American College of Surgeons, and of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Professor Darzi and his team were awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Excellence in Higher and Further Education in 2001, and the Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence in 2004. The reason I am interviewing Professor Darzi for RCSI’s student medical journal, is that he was also once an RCSI medical student, and graduated from the College in 1984.