Professor Roger Kneebone
- Job title: Professor of Surgical Education
- Organisation: Imperial College London
- Email: R Kneebone
National Teaching Fellow 2011
After qualifying as a doctor from Manchester University, Roger Kneebone spent his initial years training as a general and trauma surgeon, in the UK and Southern Africa. He then changed tack and became a general practitioner, joining an innovative and forward-thinking group practice where his passionate enthusiasm for teaching resulted in one of the premier GP training practices in the region. At the same time Roger developed a national training programme for GP minor surgery, pioneering the use of simulation in intensive workshops and developing a multimedia CD-ROM for surgical skills.
After completing a PhD at the University of Bath he moved from general practice into academia. Since 2002 he has been at Imperial College London, where he was appointed Professor in 2011.
Roger is especially interested in the part played by clinical context in simulation-based learning. During his time at Imperial, he has built an unusual and highly creative research group which is internationally recognised in the field of surgical simulation. This multidisciplinary team brings together clinicians, educators, psychologists, computer scientists, engineers, artists and musicians. Key innovations include Hybrid Simulation (the combination of inanimate models with professional actors to create authentic clinical scenarios) and Distributed Simulation (low-cost, portable but highly realistic environments for training and public engagement). His ‘inflatable operating theatre’ has generated widespread interest.
A deep commitment to education has underpinned every stage of Roger’s career. In 2005 he founded Imperial’s Masters in Education (M Ed) in Surgical Education, still the only one of its kind in the UK. This groundbreaking programme challenges biomedical ways of thinking by engaging with theories and practices outside medicine. Roger publishes widely and is much in demand as a keynote speaker at international conferences.
A gifted communicator, Roger is deeply committed to public engagement and has led numerous highly successful interactive events. His work has been featured on the BBC and on Channel 4’s ‘Jamie’s Dream School’. Events include exhibits at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, Cheltenham Science Festival, Wellcome Trust, Science Museum and Natural History Museum, together with Imperial’s Reach Out Laboratory for school students.
