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Ara Darzi

Chairman, Preemptive Health and Medicine Initiative

The Right Honourable Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham OM KBE FRS holds the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery at Imperial College London, the Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research. He is Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London and Chair of Imperial College Health Partners. Professor Darzi is an Honorary Consultant Surgeon at Imperial College Hospital NHS Trust.

Research led by Professor Darzi is directed towards achieving best surgical practice through innovation in surgery and enhancing patient safety and the quality of healthcare. His contribution within these research fields has been outstanding, publishing over 800 peer-reviewed research papers to date. In recognition of his achievements in the research and development of surgical technologies, Professor Darzi has been elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering; a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and in 2013 was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

He was knighted for his services in medicine and surgery in 2002. In 2007, he was introduced to the United Kingdom’s House of Lords as Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham and appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health. Upon relinquishing this role within central government in 2009, Professor Darzi sat as the United Kingdom’s Global Ambassador for Health and Life Sciences until March 2013. During this appointment and beyond Professor Darzi has developed his status as a leading voice in the field of global health policy and innovation. Professor Darzi was appointed a member of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council in June 2009 and in January 2016 he was introduced to the Order of Merit, the highest civilian honour in the United Kingdom, for exceptionally meritorious service towards the advancement of medicine.