John Pickard

John Douglas Pickard (born 21 March 1946) is a British professor emeritus of neurosurgery in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences of University of Cambridge. He is the honorary director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Healthcare Technology Cooperative (HTC) for brain injury. His research focuses on advancing the care of patients with acute brain injury, hydrocephalus and prolonged disorders of consciousness through functional brain imaging, studies of pathophysiology and new treatments; as well as focusing on health, economic and ethical aspects. Pickard is an emeritus professorial Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, having retired as a professorial fellow and director of studies in medical sciences. He served as president of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons from 2006 to 2008. Education Pickard attended King George V Grammar School, Southport and then studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge (Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in Physiology and Biophysics in 1967). He then completed his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at King's College Hospital in London in 1970 and Master of Surgery (MChir with distinction for his thesis on ‘The Role of Prostaglandins in the Control of the Cerebral Circulation’) from the University of Cambridge in 1981. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh since 1974 and England (Ad eundem) since 1989. Since 1998, Pickard has been a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Career Pickard trained in neurosurgery at the Institute of Neurological Sciences in Glasgow and at the University of Pennsylvania. He then became an honorary consultant neurosurgeon and senior lecturer, reader and professor of clinical neurology at the Wessex Neurological Centre and University of Southampton. In 1991, he was appointed the first professor of neurosurgery at the University of Cambridge, based at Addenbrooke's Hospital. His clinical practice included, at various times, subspecialty interests in neurovascular surgery, complex necks, hydrocephalus and tumours of the pituitary gland and IIIrd ventricle.