Mr Simon Atkinson is a consultant pancreaticobiliary surgeon and general surgeon at Guys' & St Thomas NHS Hospitals and Kings College NHS Hospital, London. He qualified from the Royal London Medical College in 1987 followed by higher surgical training in general, pancreaticobiliary and upper gastrointestinal surgery in London and South East England. He then worked as a Senior Surgical Fellow in Perth, Western Australia. His higher surgical degree (MS) was awarded in 1997 for research work in critical illness in the surgical patient. He was appointed to Guys and St Thomas Hospitals as a consultant surgeon in 2000 and, additionally, to Kings College Hospital in 2005. From 2008 to 2011 he was Clinical Lead for Gastrointestinal surgery at Guys & St Thomas and , afterwards, Clinical Lead for HPB surgery at Kings College Hospital from 2011 to 2013. He is currently Head of Governance and Patient Safety for Gastrointestinal Surgery at Guys and St Thomas and is lead clinician for tertiary referrals for gallstone surgery. Interests outside of surgery include evolutionary linguistics and squash.