Professor Sir Michael G. Marmot MBBS, MPH, PhD, FRCP, FFPHM, FMedSci, FBA
Director: International Institute for Society and Health;
MRC Research Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health,
University College London
The 2011 Annual Dinner was attended by 180 members, including 60 medical students, and was adjudged a great success, with positive feedback from many of those who were present. The guest speaker, Prof Sir Michael Marmot, gave an entertaining and at the same time thoughtful talk, explaining how his identity as a Jewish physician interdigitated with his interest in health inequalities, and how these should be tackled as a priority by the medical profession.
Michael Marmot has led a research group on health inequalities for the past 30 years.
His many professional activities include:
Acting as Principal Investigator for the Whitehall Studies of British civil servants, investigating explanations for the striking inverse social gradient in morbidity and mortality.
Leading the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)
Engaging in several international research efforts on the social determinants of health.
Chairing the Department of Health Scientific Reference Group on tackling health inequalities.
Serving on the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution
Chairing the Commission on Social Determinants of Health set up by the World Health Organization in 2005: ‘Closing the Gap in a Generation’.
He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy. In 2000 he was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen for services to epidemiology and understanding health inequalities.
Internationally he was a Vice President of the Academia Europaea, and is a Foreign Associate Member of the Institute of Medicine.
Prizes and awards include the Balzan Prize for Epidemiology (2004) and the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research (2008). He delivered the Harveian Oration in 2006.
Most recently, at the request of the British Government, he conducted a review of health inequalities, which published its report ‘Fair Society, Healthy Lives’ in February 2010
He has now been invited by the Regional Director of WHO Europe to conduct a European review of health inequalities.
Currently he is the President of the British Medical Association (BMA) and represents the BMA on the World Medical Association.