It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of Professor Sir Peter Morris last Saturday at the age of 88. Peter had a very impressive international career, which started in Australia and continued in the UK and USA. He became the Nuffield Chair of Surgery in Oxford in 1974 where he established the Oxford transplant programme. After his retirement, he became President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England from 2001 until 2004.Following his presidency, he established the Centre for Evidence in Transplantation (CET) in 2005. It was his vision to create a virtual centre that would provide easy access to high quality evidence in organ transplantation, and critically appraising this evidence through systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The initial focus of the CET was to improve the quality of clinical trials in organ transplantation in Europe. Peter, together with Rutger Ploeg, established the collaboration between ESOT and the CET in 2008. As part of the collaboration, the CET served as a knowledge centre to critically review and improve European clinical trial protocols. He was also instrumental in developing the ESOT Evidence in Transplantation course that focussed on improving evidence-based medicine skills.
Peter’s drive to further transplantation science and improve the quality of transplantation research was key throughout his career. He was an inspiration and support to many. As a mentor, Peter has impacted on so many careers of trainees and others who worked with him. He was also fun to work with – always kind, down to earth, and with a great sense of humour. He had many passions, including good food and wine, and of course cricket.
Peter will be greatly missed by the entire transplantation community. He is survived by his wife Jocelyn and five children, whom our thoughts are with at this time.
A full obituary can be found here: https://www.nds.ox.ac.uk/news/obituary-professor-sir-peter-j-morris-frs?ref=image
Kindly written by Liset Pengel and Simon Knight.
