#60;b#62;Peter Cotton#60;/b#62; is Professor of Medicine, and Director of the Digestive Disease Center, at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.#60;br#62;He was born and educated in England, where his father was a rural family physician. He graduated in 1963 from Cambridge University and St. Thomas Hospital Medical School (London). During a year of bench research as part of his GI training, he came across a paper describing the first fiberoptic gastroscope with a biopsy capability. The instrument was acquired, and a career was born. He developed the Endoscopy Laboratory at St. Thomas' Hospital whilst still officially in training, and wrote many of the first European papers… on the use of endoscopy in the investigation of dyspepsia, bleeding and other contexts.#60;br#62;After a 6 month spell in Iran (during which he introduced endoscopy to the Middle East), he went to Japan to see pioneer Kazuei Ogoshi cannulating the pancreatic duct, a huge breakthrough at a time before there were any abdominal scans. Believing the Japanese name for the procedure to be rather cumbersome, he coined the term Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio Pancreatography, which has stuck. He brought ERCP back to England in 1971, and his first paper on the subject was published in January 1972.#60;br#62;In 1973 he was appointed to the faculty of the Middlesex Hospital and Medical School (London), where he worked closely with Surgical and Radiology colleagues to develop and evaluate the rapidly growing portfolio of endoscopic procedures. He initiated the first randomized controlled trials of laser therapy for bleeding, and other trials comparing endoscopic, radiologic and surgical approaches to biliary obstruction. There was strong emphasis on teaching, which attracted postgraduates from all over the world. He pioneered live endoscopy teaching workshops in 1975, and opened a video-conferencing center in 1982. With colleagues in London he developed the first computer-based endoscopy reporting system, and maintains a strong interest in the slow march towards paperless GI and endoscopic practice.#60;br#62;Dr. Cotton left England in 1986 to become Professor of Medicine and Chief of Endoscopy at Duke University in North Carolina. He developed a state of the art endoscopy center. He maintained his interests in teaching (mainly through live video courses), new techniques, and careful outcome evaluation. He moved to Charleston, South Carolina in 1994 to initiate the Digestive Disease Center.#60;br#62;The mission of the Digestive Disease Center is to provide multidisciplinary patient-friendly, cost-effective patient care, and to pursue the research and teaching necessary to enhance it. Approximately 40 full-time faculty from Gastroenterology, Surgery, Radiology, Oncology and other specialties work together. Dr Cotton has maintained his enthusiasm for teaching postgraduates, especially in ERCP, and many from overseas. He continues to practice consultative gastroenterology, focusing on pancreatic and biliary problems, and personally performs about 400 complex ERCP procedures each year.#60;br#62;Dr. Cotton has been active in many National and International organizations, and has given invited lectures and demonstrations in almost 50 countries. He helped to form the British Society for Digestive Endoscopy, became its President, and served the British Society of Gastroenterology as its vice president and treasurer. He was secretary of the European Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and president of the Pancreatic Society of Great Britain. He was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London) in 1978, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Glasgow) in 1997, and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (London) in 2002. He has honorary memberships of the British Society of Gastroenterology, the Hong Kong Society for Digestive Endoscopy, and the South African Gastroenterology Society.#60;br#62;His long association with ASGE bega