Professor James Garden is Professorial Emeritus  at the University of Edinburgh.  He was formally Regius Professor of Clinical Surgery, Director of Edinburgh Surgery Online, Dean International, Global Community and Head of the School of Clinical Sciences and Community Health. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh (1977) and trained in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Paris in hepatobiliary, pancreatic and liver transplantation surgery.  As a specialist hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgeon for over 30 years at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, he had a particular interest in the management of benign and malignant disease of the liver and bile ducts.

He has published extensively in his field and is a former Editor-in-Chief of HPB, the official journal of the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association of which association he is a past President.  He is President of the James IV Association of Surgeons, past Chairman of the British Journal of Surgery Society Ltd and a Past President of the Association of Upper GI Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He is a Fellow of all the Royal College of Surgeons in Scotland. He is an honorary member of several international associations including the American Surgical Association.  He has honorary fellowships of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the American College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Chairman of Edinburgh World Heritage Trust and the Melville Trust for the Care and Cure of Cancer. He was Surgeon to the Queen in Scotland from 2004-2018 and was made Commander of the British Empire in the Queen’s New Year Honours list in 2014.