Bernard Devauchelle, the maxillofacial surgeon who carried out the world's first partial face transplant, will be speaking at the annual scientific meeting of the BDA's hospitals group in Cambridge next month.

Professor Devauchelle (below) carried out the successful operation on Isabelle Dinoire in Amiens, France, in November 2005 after she had been mauled by her dog. Ms Dinoire received the transplant from a brain dead donor. Her nose, chin and lips were replaced in the 17-hour operation led by Professor Devauchelle and his colleague Jean Michel Dubernard.

After the attack by the family labrador in May 2005 Ms Dinoire, then 38, could not speak or chew properly. One of her daughters said the dog had been trying to revive her after a suicide attempt, but this was later denied by the surgeons.

Ms Dinoire told a press conference in February 2006 that in May 2005 she had taken some pills to forget a very distressing week and then fainted and fell on the floor. When she came round, she said, she tried to light a cigarette and could not understand why she could not hold it between her lips. Then she saw a pool of blood and the dog standing beside it, she said.

Following the operation, in which 20 muscles were transplanted, there were concerns about tissue rejection. Professor Devauchelle has said this occurred twice in December 2005, and January 2006, but both episodes were controlled by immunosuppressant drugs.

Two months after the operation Ms Dinoire, who was still smoking, said she could smile, laugh without pain, and express herself through her face. She hoped to go home and lead a normal life with her two daughters, she said.

On the first anniversary on the operation, Professor Devauchelle, of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire in Amiens, said facial sensitivity had been restored and she was able to eat and drink without problems.

Other speakers at the conference, to be held at Magdalene College, on September 25 and 26, include James Partridge, founder of the charity Changing Faces. Mr Partridge OBE received 40 degree burns in a car accident when he was 18.