Professor Mortensen is Emeritus Professor of Colorectal Surgery at the University of Oxford Medical School. He is also Fellow of Green Templeton College and immediate Past President of the Royal College of Surgeons. He is Past Chair of the British Journal of Surgery Society, previously Editor in Chief of the Journal Colorectal Disease, President of the Ileostomy Association, and has been Past President of the Association of Coloproctology GBI and the Coloproctology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He chairs the Lee Placito Research Board for the Medical Sciences Division in the University.
‘I am delighted to receive this honour on behalf of the surgical community and the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences. The last three years have been really tough for the delivery of surgical services and surgical research. Colleagues here in Oxford and around the country have shown remarkable leadership, innovation and resilience. Surgeons deserve the recognition implied in this honour and I am grateful to accept it on their behalf.’