Born in Camarthen, Wales, Nott attended the joint medical programme offered between St Andrews and Manchester. He graduated with his MBChB in 1981.

Pioneering surgical techniques

 Nott has practiced as a consultant surgeon in the NHS for most of his career, based in London hospitals. He is a specialist in vascular surgery and was the first surgeon to combine vascular and laparoscopic surgery. In 1999, he performed the world’s first femoral-popliteal bypass using laparoscopic techniques.

Humanitarian surgery abroad

The Bosnian War initiated a new trajectory in Nott’s surgical career. Inspired by colleagues who had volunteered with Médecins Sans Frontières, Nott decided to volunteer in 1993 in Sarajevo.

Nott has taken unpaid leave every year since, travelling to conflict zones to provide life-saving surgery on the frontlines.

Working with international charitable organisations, he has provided surgical aid in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Chad, Darfur, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic, Palestine, Nepal, and Ukraine.

Nott teaches advanced trauma surgery courses at the Royal College of Surgeons and for medics abroad. In 2015, he founded the David Nott Foundation with his wife. This charitable organisation has provided training to over 2,000 surgeons around the world.

David Nott is a pioneering vascular and laparoscopic surgeon. He has provided critical surgery and surgical training in conflict zones around the world for over three decades.