Hiroshi Akiyama was professor of surgery at Toranomon Hospital, Tokyo, and an internationally renowned gastro-oesophageal surgeon. He was born on 2 July 1931 in Chiba, Japan, the son of Dr Mizuki Akiyama. He studied medicine at the University of Tokyo, qualifying in 1955. He then spent a year on a

Jens Witte, doyen of German surgery, was born on 4 February 1941 in Perleberg, Mark/Brandenburg, the eldest of three sons of a surgeon father. He studied medicine at the Universities of Homburg/Saar, Hamburg and Berlin. After qualifying, he became a medizinalassistent in Bielefeld and Hamburg, spen

John Spencer was a reader in surgery at Hammersmith Hospital, London. He was born in Bedford on 17 July 1933, the son of Arthur George Victor Spencer, a soldier, and Nellie née Housden. He was educated at Bedford Modern School, whence he won a state scholarship to study medicine at Charing Cross Hos