Simon John Mitchell MBChB, PhD, DipAdvDHM, DipOccMed, FUHM, FANZCA

Dr. Simon Mitchell is an anesthesiologist practising at Auckland City Hospital and a diving physician providing on-call diving emergency services to North Shore Hospital, Auckland. He is the Head of the Department of Anaesthesiology at the School of Medicine, University of Auckland. He is widely published in his fields of clinical expertise, and the related area of patient safety in the operating room. He serves on the Editorial Boards of 4 scientific journals and holds numerous service and executive roles in external academic societies. He has been a lifelong passionate diver and was a lead member of teams that were the first to locate, dive and identify 3 deep shipwrecks of high historical significance in Australia and New Zealand. At the time of one of these dives, it was the deepest (180m - 600’) ever undertaken to a wreck. His contributions to exploration and the science of diving were recognised by election to Fellowship of the Explorers’ Club of New York in 2006 and receipt of the Rolex Diver of the Year Award in 2015.