Military Surgical Science Symposium 2026

Tim Mitchell is a Consultant ENT Surgeon at University Hospital Southampton. He has been a MRCS examiner since 2004 and was Chair of the Court of Examiners at RCS England from 2014–2017. Elected to Council in 2017, he served as Vice President from 2020–2023 and was elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2023. He has been a strong advocate for equity and inclusion and led the implementation of RCS England's response to the Kennedy report.

Colonel Nigel Tai CBE is the UK Defence Professor of Military Surgery. He undertook a research fellowship in novel vascular conduits at University College London, gaining a Master of Surgery degree in 2001 before spending a year as a Trauma Fellow in Johannesburg General Hospital, South Africa. Appointed to the Royal London Hospital as Consultant in Trauma and Vascular Surgery in 2005, he has undertaken numerous deployments overseas and has served in leadership roles including Director of Trauma at the Royal London Hospital and Founding Head of jHubMed — the Defence Medical Services' Innovation Accelerator. He is a Clinical Professor of Trauma Surgery and Innovation at Queen Mary University London, where he currently leads a team of trauma academics and computer scientists developing decision support tools for military and civilian trauma clinicians.

Major General Philip Carter KHP OStJ is the Surgeon General of HM Armed Forces. A graduate of the University of Dundee, he commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps and trained as a General Practitioner, serving three tours as a Regimental Medical Officer before commanding the close support medical squadron in Iraq in 2007. He was appointed the first Commanding Officer of the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine Clinical Unit in 2008, supporting wounded personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. He commanded 5 Armoured Medical Regiment in Sierra Leone during the West Africa Ebola Outbreak, for which the regiment received the Firmin Sword of Peace, and subsequently served as the first British Director Medical Support with the US-led Special Operations Joint Task Force during Operation INHERENT RESOLVE. As Surgeon General, he provides operational medical advice to the Military Strategic Headquarters and oversees the Defence Medical Services' clinical research programme and medical interoperability with NATO and allied nations.

Karim Brohi is Professor of Trauma Sciences at Queen Mary University of London and Consultant Trauma and Vascular Surgeon at The Royal London Hospital. He is Director of the Centre for Trauma Sciences at QMUL and a Non-Executive Director of the London Ambulance Service. His research focuses on the response to injury, haemorrhage, coagulopathy, and precision trauma care.

Professor Lucy Chappell is Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care and Chief Executive Officer of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the UK's largest funder of health and care research. She has overall responsibility for DHSC research and development and provides science advice to ministers across the range of health topics. Prof Chappell is also Professor of Obstetrics at King's College London, working mainly in clinical trials in pregnancy, and a practising Consultant Obstetrician at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr John Holcomb received his MD from the University of Arkansas in 1985 and served in the US Army for over two decades, including as Commander of the US Army Institute of Surgical Research and Trauma Consultant for the Army Surgeon General. He helped establish the Joint Trauma System and has had multiple combat deployments. A three-time recipient of the Army's Greatest Invention award, he has published over 800 peer-reviewed articles. Over the last 5 years he has helped lead the implementation of prehospital blood programmes in the US and has volunteered in Ukraine 5 times.

Surgeon Commodore Jason Smith CBE KHP is the Medical Director to the UK Surgeon General and Head of Research and Clinical Innovation for the Defence Medical Services. A consultant in emergency medicine at University Hospitals Plymouth, he is the Emeritus Defence Professor of Emergency Medicine and Editor-in-Chief of BMJ Military Health. He is the Chief Investigator of SWiFT, a multi-centre randomised controlled trial of whole blood in frontline trauma recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2025.

Dr Valentina Vitiello is Head of Clinical Translation and Governance at the London Institute for Healthcare Engineering, King's College London, where she leads programmes accelerating the safe adoption of innovative medical technologies into clinical practice. She holds a PhD in Medical Robotics from Imperial College London and specialises in surgical technologies, regulatory strategy, and clinical study governance. Her work focuses on overcoming barriers to implementation to convert innovation into deployable clinical capability.