Biography

Professor Iain S. Whitaker is the Chair of Plastic Surgery in Wales and Honorary Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon at The Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery. He is the Clinical Director of the Reconstructive Surgery & Regenerative Medicine Research Unit, an integrated team of clinicians and academics investigating novel tissue engineering approaches to complex reconstructive problems involving soft tissues and joints.

Professor Whitaker read Medicine at Trinity Hall College, University of Cambridge, and continued his early experience of plastic surgery during a sub-internship in Plastic Surgery at Harvard Medical School. Following clinical plastic surgery training in Yorkshire, Uppsala, and Wales, he completed his PhD in 2009 as a result of a collaboration between Connecticut (USA) and Utrecht (The Netherlands). Following completion of specialist training, he was awarded the Rowan Nick’s Surgeon Scientist Scholarship to undertake a microsurgical research fellowship in Melbourne with Professor Mark Ashton and the European Association of Plastic Surgeons Young Plastic Surgeon Scholarship to work with Professor Lantieri in Paris. After appointment as locum consultant plastic surgeon at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS trust, he returned to take up his current post in Wales in 2012. He has published over 150 articles (H index 26), edited several textbooks, and written more than 25 book chapters. He is currently the Chief Specialty Editor for Frontiers in Surgery, the Associate Editor of the Annals of Plastic Surgery, and the regenerative medicine lead on the Editorial Board for BMC Medicine.

Professor Whitaker’s current translational research interests include cartilage tissue engineering for use in facial reconstruction, fat transfer for facial rejuvenation, and breast reconstruction and the monitoring of free tissue transfers.