Burns Research Specialist Awarded OBE

A Swansea University professor who specialises in burns and plastic surgery has received an OBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace for his work in global burn care and prevention. Professor Tom Potokar of the Centre for Global Burn Injury Policy & Research based at the College of Human and Health Sciences, is also a surgeon at the Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery at Morriston Hospital and runs the Interburns charity, which is an international network for training, education and research in burns.

He said: “It was very rewarding to have been recognised in this way for the work I have done in global burn care and prevention over the last 10-15 years, however, it must also be remembered that there are many people from around the world that have contributed to this work in countries as diverse as Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Ghana, Ethiopia and Palestine.

“I am also very happy that this has come at a time when we are launching the new centre for Global Burn Injury Policy & Research at Swansea University, which will I hope cement further Swansea as a real hub for improving global burn care and prevention through a combination of education, training, capacity building and implementation focussed research.

Professor Potokar’s role at the new centre will focus on supporting quality research, teaching and strategy development, to deliver real change in the management of burns patients globally.

As director of Interburns he brings together an international volunteer network of expert health care professionals who deliver high quality training, education and research at minimal cost which over the last decade has trained over 3,000 health care professionals to provide good quality care to burns patients.

Professor Potokar is also a hands-on charity fundraiser. In October 2014 he, his wife and children joined fellow plastic surgeon and Interburns team member Sian Falder from Alderhey Childrens Hospital and her family on a 1200 mile sponsored motorcycle trip from Kathmandu, Nepal to Dhaka, Bangladesh to increase awareness about burn injuries which raised nearly £40,000 for the charity.