Dr Francis Seow-Choen is currently Medical Director and Senior Consultant at Fortis Colorectal Hospital in Singapore. He is an internationally recognised colorectal surgeon and had previously held posts as the Head and senior consultant in the Department of Colorectal Surgery, Singapore General Hospital, Director of the Endoscopy Centre and Director of Surgical Oncology at the National Cancer Centre. He was previously Associate Professor at both National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University. He is also Visiting Professor to the Tianjin Police Hospital, National Centre for Colorectal Diseases, Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Wenzhou Medical College, PR China, Guigang People’s Hospital, Tianjin Union Medical College, Wuhan 8th Hospital and Tianjin Institute of Colorectal Diseases. He is past president of the Society of Colorectal Surgeons of Singapore(SCRS), The Asian Federation of Coloproctology(AFCP) and he is the current and founding President The Eurasian Colorectal Technology Association(ECTA). Prof Seow-Choen's distinguished achievements can be seen by his appointments to the Editorial Boards of many prestigious journals including, Diseases of the Colon and Rectum(USA), Colorectal Disease(European), British Journal of Surgery(UK), Techniques in Coloproctology(Italian-co-editor), Indian Journal of Coloproctology(Indian), Digestive Surgery(Germany), Chinese Journal of Coloproctology(Zhongguo gangchangbing zazhi) PRC-dy chairman, Journal of Surgical Oncology, BMC Surgical Journal, the World Journal of Gastroenterology, World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, World Journal of Colorectal Surgery as well as the Chinese Integrative Journal of Colorectal Disease. He has published 39 chapters in surgical textbooks and more than 261 original articles in peer reviewed surgical journals. He was the American Society of Colon and Rectum Surgeons’ first International Travelling Fellow in 1993. He was also the ESR Hughes Lecturer for the Royal Australian College of Surgeons in 1999 and the Rupert B Turnbull Memorial Lecturer for the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, USA in 2004 and the Philip Gordon lecturer for the Canadian Colorectal Society in 2005 and the Dr Sivalingam orator for the International Society of Coloproctology in Nagpur in 2014, the Dr PN Joshi Orator for the Association of Colon and Rectal Surgeons of India in Delhi in 2015, the B Krishna Rau Orato for the 14th National Congress of Indian Association of Gastrointestinal Endo-Surgeons in Hyderabad in 2017 and the Harry Bacon Orator for the 30th Biennial Congress, International Society of University Colon and Rectal Surgeons in Yokohama, Japan. Prof Seow-Choen's international achievements was recognised by Singapore in the conferment upon him of The Excellence for Singapore Award in 2000.