Andrew W McCaskie Editor

Professor Sir Norman Williams, MS FRCS FMedSci FRCP FRCP(Ed) FRCA FDS(Hon) FACS(Hon) FRCS(I)(Hon) FRCS(Ed)(Hon) Senior Clinical Advisor to the Secretary of State for Health, Past President, The Royal College of Surgeons of England 2011–2014, Emeritus Professor of Surgery, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.

Professor Sir Norman Williams was until recently Professor of Surgery at Barts and The London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry and Director of the National Centre for Bowel Research and Surgical Innovation (1986-2016) and retains the title of Emeritus Professor of Surgery. He trained in London, Bristol, Leeds and Los Angeles His main clinical interests have been sphincter preservation and reconstructive colorectal surgery, and his scientific interests concentrated on GI motility and anorectal physiology. He is now the Senior Clinical Advisor to the Secretary of State for Health and on the Board of St George’s NHS Foundation Trust Hospital.

He has been President of the Society of Academic & Research Surgery, President of The Ileostomy & Internal Pouch Support Group, Chairman of the UKCCCR committee on Colorectal Cancer, President of European Digestive Surgery, President of The International Surgical Group and Vice Chairman of The British Journal of Surgery. He was on the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England from 2005 and became President in 2011-14.

Professor Williams is co-author of Surgery of the Anus, Rectum and Colon and was a founding trustee and Chairman of Bowel & Cancer Research and is now the President of this charity. He has been joint editor of Bailey and Love’s Short Practice of Surgery since the 22nd Edition. He was knighted for services to surgery in 2015.

Professor P. Ronan O’Connell, MD FRCS(I) FRCPS(Glas) FRCS(Ed) Head of Section of Surgery and Surgical Specialties, University College Dublin, St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

Professor P. Ronan O’Connell is Head of Surgical Specialties at the UCD School of Medicine, Dublin Ireland and Consultant Surgeon at St Vincent’s University Hospital Dublin, Ireland. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1979 and trained as general surgeon with sub-specialty interest in Coloproctology. Having completed a fellowship in colon and rectal surgery at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN, USA, he spent time as a Senior Lecturer with Professor Sir Norman Williams at the Royal London Hospital. He was appointed consultant surgeon at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital Dublin in 1990 where he served until his current appointment in 2007.

Professor O’Connell has served as an editor of the British Journal of Surgery and associate editor of Diseases of the Colon and Rectum. He has been editor in chief for the European Surgical Association and joint editor of Bailey and Love’s Short Practice of Surgery for the 25th, 26th and now 27th editions, having contributed chapters to the 23rd and 24th editions. Apart from his editing, Prof O’Connell is widely published in the areas of IBD, colorectal cancer and pelvic floor physiology. He is a Council member of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and holds ad hominum fellowships of the Glasgow and Edinburgh Royal Colleges. He is a past President of the European Society of Coloproctology and honorary fellow of the American Surgical Association and the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons.

Professor Andrew W. McCaskie, MMus MD FRCS FRCS (T&O) Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Head of Department of Surgery, University of Cambridge, Honorary Consultant, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK

Professor Andrew McCaskie is Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Head of Department of Surgery at the University of Cambridge. He trained in Leeds, Leicester and Newcastle upon Tyne, where he was Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery until moving to Cambridge in 2013. His clinical interest is the lower limb, and particularly the treatment of osteoarthritis, seeking to develop repair and regenerative therapies at early stages of disease. He is the Director of the Arthritis Research UK Tissue Engineering Centre which brings together UK clinicians, engineers and biologists to develop stem and stromal cell therapy for early osteoarthritis.

He has been the President of the British Orthopaedic Research Society, member of the Council of Management of The British Editorial Society of Bone and Joint Surgery, and member of Council of the British Orthopaedic Association. He is currently the Director of the Academic Foundation Programme in Cambridge and is widely published, including papers in The Lancet and Nature Genetics.