Watch warzone trauma surgeon's Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture

29 May 2018

Alumnus David Nott OBE's lecture to be streamed live on Facebook

A conflict surgeon who has risked his life in some of the world’s most dangerous conflicts is to deliver this year’s Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture at 6pm on Thursday.

David Nott OBE, who is a recipient of the University's Outstanding Alumni Award, will speak to graduates at the sell-out event. But if you don't have a ticket, the lecture will be streamed live on Facebook.

For the past 23 years David has taken unpaid leave each year to work for the aid agencies Médecins Sans Frontières, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Syria Relief.

He has worked in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Chad, Darfur, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Central African Republic, Gaza and Nepal.

When Islamic State fanatics burst into his theatre in Syria he bravely refused to stop operating and leave the hospital, vowing to carry on operating on a little girl even if it ended in his own death.

As well as treating victims of conflict and catastrophe and raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for charitable causes, David teaches advanced surgical skills to local medics and surgeons when he is abroad.

In 2015 he established the David Nott Foundation with his wife Elly. The Foundation supports surgeons to develop operating skills in warzones and austere environments.

Watch the lecture

The lecture will be streamed live from 6pm. Join the Facebook event to receive a notification once the lecture goes live.

If you are unable to watch it live, it will be available afterwards on the Alumni Facebook page.

The Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture

The annual Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture is the flagship event for alumni and friends of The University of Manchester. At Manchester, we have the largest global alumni community of any-campus based university in the UK, and we are in contact with over 380,000 graduates.

Over 7,000 of these graduates across the globe give up their time to benefit students and their local communities as part of our alumni volunteering programme – one of the largest in the UK.