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Professor Dickson was educated at the Edinburgh Academy and the University of Edinburgh, qualifying in Medicine in 1967.  He completed his surgical house jobs in Edinburgh, working for Professor ‘JIP’ James.   He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1972 and was awarded the degree of Master of Surgery by the University of Edinburgh in 1973 for his thesis concerning the assessment of the rheumatoid hand.   He then moved to Oxford, where he worked with Professor Robert Duthie and converted from hand surgery to spinal surgery by working as a spinal fellow for Ken Leatherman in Louisville, Kentucky. During this time he also worked as a visiting surgeon assisting the earthquake victims in Venezuela.

He was appointed Reader in Orthopaedic Surgery at Oxford with the clinical duties of a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon and then was appointed as the Foundation Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery in Leeds.  His research into spinal deformity translated into tangible patient benefits:  the surgical management of idiopathic scoliosis by the eponymous “Leeds procedure” was published in the British Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery in 1987. His academic prowess was recognised by most awards available to Orthopaedic Surgeons including the Moynihan Prize of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, the Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1984, the Jacksonian Prize from the English college in 1990 and the Robert Jones Medal from the British Orthopaedic Association in 2002.  

He is the founder editor of Orthopaedics and Trauma and served on the editorial board of the British Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. During his career he authored numerous textbooks and chapters on spinal surgery and trained a generation of spinal surgeons who have gone on to practice around the globe.

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