Mr Gavin Bowden is a senior Consultant Orthopaedic Spinal Surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust - at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre the John Radcliffe Hospital, a position held since 2000 where he has been lead clinician for the Oxford Spine Unit.  

His main clinical interests are treating back pain and spinal surgery especially the management of spinal degenerative disorders (such as sciatica and spinal stenosis), deformity, sports injuries or trauma and tumours of the spine. His major research interest is the design of implants for minimally invasive spinal surgery.  Mr Bowden's basic science interests include the physiology of the growing spine. He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Oxford where he teaches anatomy to undergraduate and postgraduate medical students.

Mr Bowden graduated in Medicine in 1986 from the University of the Witwatersrand and was awarded the Gencor Prize for his achievements. He then specialised in Orthopaedic Surgery in Cape Town.  In 1995 he was awarded the Synthes Prize by the University of Cape Town and the Edelstein Medal (awarded to the outstanding candidate in the Orthopaedic Fellowship Examination) by the College of Surgeons of South Africa. Between 1996 and 2000 Mr Bowden was the Nuffield Orthopaedic Scholar and Clinical Research Fellow for the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council in the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and at the University of Oxford. 

Mr Bowden acted as a lead Editor for two major publications in his field: The Oxford Handbook of Orthopaedics and Trauma (Oxford University Press, 2010 - Highly Commended in the 2011 BMA Medical Book Awards) and The Oxford Textbook of Orthopaedics and Trauma (Oxford University Press, 2001).