About Professor Sir Michael Marmot
Professor Sir Michael G. Marmot CH, MBBS, MPH, PhD, FRCP, FFPHM, FMedSci, FBA
Professor Sir Michael Marmot is Professor of Epidemiology at University College London, Director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity, and Past President of the World Medical Association.
History
Professor Marmot has been Professor of Epidemiology at UCL since 1985. He first joined as Head of Department, a role he stayed in for 26 years overseeing the growth of the Department from 7 to 170 people. Fundamental to this growth was a vision of needed research on social determinants of health and health inequalities.
He set up and led a number of longitudinal cohort studies on the social gradient in health in the UCL Department of Epidemiology & Public Health: the Whitehall II Studies of British Civil Servants, investigating explanations for the striking inverse social gradient in morbidity and mortality; the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), and several international research efforts on the social determinants of health.
Professor Marmot chaired the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), which was set up by the World Health Organization in 2005, and produced the report entitled: ‘Closing the Gap in a Generation’ in August 2008.
At the request of the British Government, he conducted the Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England, which published its report 'Fair Society, Healthy Lives' (also known as the Marmot Review) in February 2010. Based on the evidence, the Marmot Review had six domains of recommendations: give every child the best start in life; education and life-long learning; employment and working conditions; minimum income necessary for a healthy life; healthy and sustainable environments and communities in which to live and work; taking a social determinants approach to prevention and healthy life-style.
He is the author of The Health Gap: the challenge of an unequal world (Bloomsbury: 2015) and Status Syndrome: how your place on the social gradient directly affects your health (Bloomsbury: 2004).
Start of IHE
In 2011, following the CSDH and the Marmot Review, Professor Marmot established the UCL Institute of Health Equity (IHE). The IHE works to address the Social Determinants of Health and improve health equity.
Professor Marmot and his team at the IHE have been commissioned by cities and regions to bring their evidence-based approach to health equity into action at local level. Now, 40+ communities in England and Wales have declared themselves as acting on Marmot principles.
In February 2020, Professor Marmot and the IHE team, launched the ‘Marmot Review 10 Years On’, which serves as an update to the ‘Fair Society, Healthy Lives’ review. In December 2020 they published 'Build Back Fairer: The COVID 19 Marmot Review', a threefold report that aimed to:
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Examine inequalities in COVID-19 mortality
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Show the effects that the pandemic, and the societal response to contain the pandemic, have had on social and economic inequalities, their effects on mental and physical health, and their likely effects on health inequalities in the future
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Make recommendations on what needs to be done
WHO and Global Work
Professor Marmot has also led many global research efforts on health inequalities. He chaired: the 'European Review of Social Determinants of Health and the Health Divide', for WHO Euro in 2014; the 'Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas', set up in 2015 by the World Health Organizations’ Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO/ WHO); the Regional Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, established in November 2019 to review health inequities in WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region and issue recommendations to address these inequities. In March 2021 the commission published both an Executive Summary and Executive Brief under the title: Build Back Fairer: Achieving Health Equity in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
UNAIDS has now invited him to co-chair a new Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics. His co-chairs are the Nobel-prize winning economist, Joe Stiglitz, and Monica Geingoss, First Lady of Namibia.
Awards & Recognition
Professor Marmot served as President of the British Medical Association (BMA) in 2010-2011, and is President of the British Lung Foundation. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology; a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences; an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy, and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians. He was recently elected to the American Philosophical Society, one of only 140 non-US members. In 2004 he was awarded the Balzan Prize. At the 2019 World Health Assembly he was recognised as global health hero. Professor Marmot held the Harvard Lown Professorship for 2014-2017 and is the recipient of the Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health 2015. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from 21 universities. In 2021 Professor Marmot received BMJ's Outstanding Contribution to Health award. In 2000 Professor Marmot was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen, for services to epidemiology and the understanding of health inequalities. He was appointed a Companion of Honour for services to public health in the 2023 New Year Honours. Professor Marmot is a Member of the US National Academy of Medicine, of the Brazilian Academy of Medicine and the Mexican Academy of Medicine.
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Academic Appointments
2019 – present: Professor University of Manchester
2015-17: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Bernard Lown Visiting Professor of Social & Behavioural Sciences
2011 -: University College London, Director, Institute of Health Equity
2005 - 2011: University College London, Director, International Institute for Society and Health
2000-present: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Adjunct Professor, Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences
1994-2005: University College London, Director, International Centre for Health and Society
1995-2013: MRC Research Professor in Epidemiology
1990-92: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Professor in Epidemiology and Public Health
1985-present: University College London, Professor in Epidemiology and Public Health
1985- 2011: University College London, Head of Department, Epidemiology & Public Health
1976-85: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Lecturer/Senior Lecturer
Honours & Distinctions
MM was awarded a Companion of Honour for services to public health
MM was knighted in 2000 “for services to Epidemiology and Understanding Health Inequalities”
President of BMA 2010-11
President World Medical Association 2015-16
MM has been awarded 20 honorary doctorates from:
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Miami, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim, University of Ghent, Lund University, KU Leuven, University of Newcastle, Middlesex University, Malmo University, Northumbria University, University of Panama, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Lima, Trinity College Dublin, University of Stockholm, University of Helsinki, University of Montreal, University of Athens, Université Libre de Bruxelles, University of Sydney.
MM has been awarded numerous distinctions for his contributions to science, including:
Outstanding Contribution to Health Award, The British Medical Journal (2021)
Good Governance Award, Good Governance Institute (2021)
Global Hero Award, World Health Organization (2019)
Distinguished Visiting Professorship, Chinese University of Hong Kong (2019)
Elected Foreign Fellow Brazilian Academy of Medicine (2019)
Campanile Excellence in Achievement Award, University of California Berkeley (2019)
John Hunt Lecture and Medal, Royal College of General Practitioners (2019)
Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine (2017)
British Medical Association Award: Distinguished Merit gold medal (2017)
Immediate Past President, World Medical Association (2016)
Prince Mahidol Award for public health (2015)
Centennial Winslow Medal, Yale School of Public Health (2015)
Félix Restrepo, SJ, Medal of Honor, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana award, Colombia (2015). Elected Member, US National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) (2015) Balzan Prize (2014)
Irish Cancer Society, Charles Cully Lecture & Memorial Award (2013)
Vice-President Academia Europaea
Honorary Member, Swiss Academy of Humanities & Social Sciences (2013)
Lifetime Award Fellowship Eur Academy of Occupational Health Psychology (2012)
Sir Liam Donaldson Lecture and Medal, Health Protection Agency (2011)
Corresponding Member, Belgian Royal Academy of Science (2011)
Jenner Medal, Royal Society of Medicine (2010)
Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Foundation Hero Award (2007)
Alwyn Smith Prize Medal for distinguished service to public health, Faculty of Public Health (2004)
Learned Bodies
1984 Member of the Faculty of Community Medicine, Royal College of Physicians
1989 Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine, Royal College of Physicians
1989 Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians
1998 Foundation Fellow, Academy of Medical Sciences
2008 Honorary Fellow, British Academy
2008 Honorary Fellow, Royal Society for Public Health
2013 Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Psychiatry
2013 President, British Lung Foundation 2015 Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Obstetrics & Gynaecologists 2016 Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health 2016 Honorary Fellow, Royal Statistical Society 2019 Honorary Fellow Royal College of General Practitioners
Selected Major Professional Service
MM has led and participated in numerous scientific commissions and reviews both nationally and internationally. A selected few of these professional service roles are listed below.
National
Member, The Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales
Trustee, British Heart Foundation
President, British Lung Foundation
Chair, Breast Screening Review, Cancer Research UK
Chair, Department of Health Global Health Leaders Council
Chair, Strategic Review of Health Inequalities for England post-2010 (Marmot Review)
Chair, Dept of Health Scientific Reference Group: Tackling Health Inequalities
Member, Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution
Chair, Research and Development Committee, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
Chair, Higher Education Funding Council for England, RAE Panel of Community-based Clinical Subjects
World Health Organization
Advisor to WHO Director-General on social determinants of health
Chair Eastern Mediterranean Commission on Social Determinants of Health
Chair, Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas for Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
Chair European Review of Social Determinants and the Health Divide.
Chair of Commission on Social Determinants of Health – report Closing the Gap in a Generation – 2008