Surgical Society: Plastic Surgery Chair

Hi, I’m Rajeev, a fourth-year medical student with a strong passion for plastic surgery. 

Through my intercalation in Surgical Sciences, I gained extensive experience in the Royal Free plastics department and have maintained these strong connections there. Beyond this, I’ve built a wide network of leading plastic surgeons across London and nationally through conferences and active engagement. I’ve also established relationships with PRAS leaders from other universities, who are eager to collaborate and share valuable resources.

I plan to leverage these connections, along with insights from attending UCL PRAS and other PRAS conferences, to deliver a high-impact, cohesive conference that raises the bar.

Furthermore, as MDs Director, I’ve managed large-scale productions, coordinating teams, problem-solving under pressure, and delivering seamless events—skills that will serve me well as PRAS Chair.

My key goals for PRAS:

• Strengthen ties with the Royal Free Plastics Department
• Foster collaboration with other university PRAS committees
• Organise a flagship PRAS conference
• Relaunch the Plastic Surgical Skills Course (open to all)
• Create a ‘mini constitution’ and guidelines for the PRAS committee to uphold excellence and quality in events and ensure continuity beyond my tenure as chair.

If elected, I’ll work hard to expand PRAS opportunities, ensuring our events are engaging, educational, and practical.

Vote Rajeev for an exciting and dynamic year in plastics!!

Hi, my name is Govinder, and I am a 4th-year medical student based at the Royal Free Hospital.

I am applying for the role of Plastic Surgery Chair because I am deeply passionate about this specialty and am eager to channel this onto growing and strengthening this society.

As Chair, I will:

• Expand conference opportunities by hosting more conferences and collaborating with other London universities such as Imperial and KCL.
• Establish a mentorship/observership programme to provide students with hands-on exposure to plastic surgery—something not covered in our core curriculum.
• Run an advanced suturing workshop series to help students further develop their surgical skills.
• Increase research opportunities for students interested in plastics.

Why I’m suited for this role:

• I have strong connections with the plastics team at the Royal Free Hospital and will leverage these to create mentorship and learning opportunities.
• I have leadership experience, having served as an iBSc representative last year.
• I have 100+ hours of theatre experience, giving me firsthand insight into surgery.

I am committed to making the society more accessible, educational, and inspiring for students interested in plastic surgery. I would love your support to make this happen!

Hi everyone, I'm Sara, and I would love to be your next Plastic Surgery Chair! As the current Events Officer for the OMFS Society, I helped organise a joint conference with Plastics and ENT societies, gaining valuable experience in speaker outreach, sponsorships, and workshop planning. My experience on the Surgical Society and Global Surgery media teams has also equipped me with the tools to effectively coordinate events and outreach.

During my iBSc year, I conducted research in various plastic surgery areas, including osseointegrated implants, regenerative nerve surgery, and skin cancer excisions. This deepened my understanding of plastic surgery and connected me with incredible surgeons who I’d love to invite for talks. There remain many misconceptions about plastic surgery, and it is my hope to introduce everyone to how amazingly diverse this field is. I plan to:

• Arrange a lecture series into the different subspecialties within plastic surgery, ranging from hand surgery to craniofacial reconstruction.
• Organise a mentorship scheme to promote research and shadowing.
• Collaborate with other subspecialty societies and plastics societies across London to bring like-minded people together and allow networking opportunities.
• Arrange more hands-on workshops so you can enhance your suturing skills.
• Organise an exciting conference to showcase the field’s breadth and innovation. 

I hope to build on the amazing work of past Plastic Surgery Chairs and would be honoured to have your vote!

Hi! I'm Konark, a passionate fourth-year medical student - here's why I'm the perfect fit for this role!

As President of Anatomy Society and member of PRAS committee, I not only have large-scale society management experience but also the insights of approaching & maintaining a professional relationship with surgeons.

Tapping into existing contacts from UCH and RFH, I aim to make an improved PRAS structure + leverage plastic surgeon contacts. Previous exposure from hosting and joining various PRAS conferences has also given insight into what can be optimised.

As chair, I aim to:

1. Set up the first PRAS Shadowing & Mentorship scheme: We aim to start small while leveraging contacts, making it easier to reduce inconsistent follow ups and other pitfalls.
2. Acknowledging the Surgical Portfolio: Recognising the symbiotic relationship between surgeons and students in undertaking audits, we aim to bridge them together.
3. Organise a Flagship Plastic Surgery Conference: Having previously hosted the iNUGSC Academic Competition and a poster presentation at ASHG, I aim to bring those opportunities into a revamped PRAS conference.
4. Bolster connection between inter-uni PRAS and within UCL’s chairs: Opportunities for joint sessions on flaps reconstructions, workshops, and conferences open up from here.

I offer you my absolute commitment, creativity, and most importantly - practicality. I am passionate about taking PRAS to the next level and would appreciate your support!

I am really excited to run for the position of plastic surgery chair this year as I have been involved with the plastics department at the Royal Free and the Head and Neck department at UCLH with various research projects. I've really enjoyed immersing myself in both fields and would now like to share my passion as a senior medical student to my juniors.

I propose that we encourage medical students to undertake research projects with mentorship not from just consultants but also from senior medical students who are working on research projects. That will provide medical students a step up in applying for postgraduate surgical training programmes which can be quite competitive. I will make a research network and will recruit mentors who are keen and willing to supervise equally keen and willing medical students!

I will also be very keen for medical students to get work experience for which I will be liaising with both department's where I am doing research and encourage medical students to go and shadow surgeons and see first hand the wonders of the field.

Lastly, I am a big believer in global surgery and I believe that we should encourage charity and equality in surgery. Hence, I will be keen to organise a charity event the raise money for causes such as CLEFT or Scar free foundation.  

Thank you for reading my statement I am very grateful for your vote and hope we can together inspire the next generation of surgeon in this field.