Professor Wendy Brown MBBS(hons) PhD FRACS FACS

Head, Monash University Department of Surgery

Director, Oesophago-Gastric-Bariatric Unit The Alfred

Clinical Lead, Bariatric Surgery Registry

Professor Wendy Brown was the first woman to be appointed Chair of the Monash University Department of Surgery in 2015 and in 2018 she was appointed Director of the Oesophago-Gastric-Bariatric Unit at The Alfred. She is also the Director of the Centre for Obesity Research and Education (CORE) and Clinical Lead for the National Bariatric Surgery Registry and the Victorian Upper GI Cancer Registry. 

Professor Brown’s areas of expertise include bariatric and upper gastrointestinal surgery, including cancer and reflux disease.  Her research focuses on optimally managing the chronic disease of obesity and measuring the effects of weight loss on health, quality of life and survival.  She has led the development of the Bi-national Bariatric Surgery Registry obtaining funding for the pilot and roll out.  The aim of the Registry is to capture all bariatric procedures across Australia and New Zealand and track the outcomes (weight, diabetes status and need for re-operation) longitudinally for 10 years.  She has published over 90 peer reviewed papers and has been invited to speak at over 100 National and International conferences.

Professor Brown serves the broader medical community in a wide variety of roles.  She is president of the Australia & New Zealand Gastro Oesophogeal Surgery Association and a past president of the Obesity Surgery Society of Australia and New Zealand. She is a previous senior examiner in the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) Court of General Surgery Examiners and will be the Scientific Convener at the 2020 RACS Scientific Congress. She is the Scientific Chair of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders.  She has been a chair and team member of Australian Medical Council assessment teams for undergraduate programs and is a member of the RACS board in Surgical Research.  She has previously been a member of the Victorian State Ministerial Cancer Taskforce (2003-2004) and Bariatric working party (2008), Victorian Surgical Consultative Council (2011-2016) as well as the Tasmanian Department of Health working party on Bariatric Surgery (2009-2010).