Rod Jacobs is an Australian-trained general surgeon with degrees in Science and Medicine from the University of Melbourne. Clinical training, residency and surgical training at The Royal Melbourne Hospital followed. After attaining his surgical fellowship Rod worked as a consultant surgeon in Sydney and London before returning to Melbourne. He holds public hospital appointments at Western Health and the Alfred, where he is the lead clinician in the Complex Hernia Clinic. His private practice now focuses on open and minimally invasive abdominal wall reconstruction. Rod is a member of the Epworth Hospital Gastrointestinal and General Surgery Clinical Institute executive; the inaugural President of the ANZ Hernia Society; active on the International Hernia Collaboration; a previous faculty member for AHS meetings and the AWR-Deep Impact conference. He is a reviewer for the journal Hernia; and the author of peer-reviewed publications from his time as a scientist and surgeon.