Kausik Bhattacharya was a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He trained at St George's Hospital and qualified MB BS from London University in 1990. Early appointments were at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor and the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford (1995-97). He passed the fellowship in 1995, was appointed registrar in thoracic surgery to the Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham in 1997 and moved the following year to a cardiothoracic surgery registrar post at Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry. He joined the West of Scotland rotation in a similar role in 1999 and became honorary clinical tutor in cardiac surgery to the University of Glasgow. Moving to Boston, USA in 2002, he spent two years as Naysmith scholar at the Molecular Cardiology Research Unit before returning to Scotland. He listed his professional interests as "cerebral injury following cardiac surgery"; "inflammatory response during and after cardiopulmonary bypass" and "myocardial signalling. Other interests were golf and cricket. He died on 8 July 2010