Prof. Vassilios Papalois

Secretary General of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS)

Vassilios Papalois is Professor of Transplantation Surgery and Consultant Transplant and General Surgeon at the Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College, London, UK. He leads a Transplant Centre of Excellence focusing on high risk and extended criteria kidney and pancreas transplantation.

He has been active in surgical research for more than 20 years and has published 190 papers in peer review journals, 16 book chapters and 7 books. His research focuses on pre-transplant assessment and reconditioning of marginal kidney and pancreas grafts, use of stem cells for treatment of chronically scarred allografts, clinical ethics and health policy. He has been awarded, through competitive processes, more than L1,200,000 in research grants.

Professor Papalois has extensive experience in the NHS in Clinical Governance and Medico-Legal issues, is NIHR NW London Subspecialty Lead for Transplantation, Chairs the Ethics Committee of the Avon and Somerset Constabulary and he is a member of the Research Ethics Committee of the UK Ministry of Defence.

He is the Secretary General of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), the President Elect of the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT), Member of the Executive Board of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI), Member of Council of the European Society of Surgery (ESS) and Member of the Council of the British Journal of Surgery Society (BJS).

Professor Papalois organises annually a series of advanced international courses on transplant training, clinical ethics and health policy and has given more than 150 lectures in international forums as an invited speaker.

He has been awarded a Bronze National Award for Clinical Excellence by the UK Department of the Health, a Senior Clinical Investigator Award by the European Society for Organ Transplantation and a Teaching Excellence Award by Imperial College. He has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Thessaloniki and he is an Honorary Member of the Spanish Association of Surgeons and the Spanish Transplantation Society.