We are pleased to provisionally announce our keynote speakers will be:
- Prof. Ruth Hunter (Queen’s University Belfast)
- Prof. Liz Green (Public Health Wales/University of West of England/University of Liverpool)
- Prof. Nisreen Alwan (University of Southampton)
- Prof. Sir Michael Marmot (WITHDRAWN; UCL)
Professor Ruth Hunter
Professor Ruth Hunter is Professor of Public and Planetary Health at Queen’s University Belfast. She is a public health researcher with an interest in disease prevention, and methodological expertise in complexity and systems science. Her work primarily involves investigating how we can improve our urban environment for better population health including brain health. She is a member of the Public Health Research funding panel for the National Institute for Health Research, and the WHO expert panels on urban green space interventions, Non Communicable Disease prevention, Health and the Sustainable Development Goals and other aspects of urban environment and health, and an executive board member for the WHO Belfast Healthy Cities and Connswater Community Greenway.
Prof. Hunter is also Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for research and training on complex systems and network science for Noncommunicable Disease (NCD) prevention and control. Her current research projects include the ESRC-funded Supportive environments for physical and social activity, healthy ageing, and cognitive health (SPACE) project. This project investigates the impacts and possible mechanistic pathways of urban environments on healthy ageing and cognitive health, through the novel integration of multi-omics, lifestyle behaviour and environmental exposures from urban environments. This will ensure that we create healthy active places that are supportive, attractive and accessible to people as they age.
More information about Prof. Hunter’s current and past work is available at Queen’s University Belfast profile page.
Professor Liz Green
Professor Liz Green is Consultant in Public Health, Policy and International Health/Programme Director for Health Impact Assessment at the WHO Collaborating Centre on ‘Investment for Health and Well-being’, Policy and International Health Directorate, Public Health Wales . Prof. Green is an international expert on health impact assessments, as well as integrating health and well-being into ‘non health’ sectors such as land use planning to drive ‘health in all policies’ approaches. This includes a clear focus on mobilizing cross-sector collaboration and addressing inequalities as part of policies and plans. Prof. Green is also Visiting Professor in Spatial Planning and Health at the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre (WHO CC) for ‘Healthy Urban Environments’, University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol.
Prof. Green is the lead author for ‘The Public Health Implications of Brexit: A Health Impact Assessment (HIA) approach’ published by Public Health Wales in 2019. The report considered the implications of Brexit across a wide range of health determinants and the future impact of trade and trade agreements. Prof. Green is lead author of the only broad critical appraisal review tool for Health Impact Assessments: ‘A Quality Review Framework for HIA’ published by the Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit in 2018.
Further details of Prof. Green’s research can be found in her profile at the WHO Collaborating Centre on ‘Investment for Health and Well-being’.
Professor Nisreen Alwan
Please see here for Prof. Alwan’s biography.
Professor Sir Michael Marmot (withdrawn)
Prof. Marmot sadly had to withdraw from this year’s event and has been replaced by Prof. Nisreen Alwan.
Professor Sir Michael Marmot has been Professor of Epidemiology at University College London since 1985. Prof. Marmot is also the Advisor to the WHO Director-General, on social determinants of health, in the new WHO Division of Healthier Populations. He has a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and held the Harvard Lown Professorship for 2014-2017. Prof. Marmot has been awarded a WHO Global Hero Award and received the Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health in 2015. He has accepted honorary doctorates from 18 universities. In 2021 Prof. Marmot received BMJ’s Outstanding Contribution to Health award. He was knighted in 2000 by Her Majesty The Queen for services to epidemiology and the understanding of health inequalities.
Prof. Marmot has led research groups on health inequalities for nearly 50 years and has chaired numerous influential committees. He chaired the Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas, set up in 2015 by the World Health Organization’s Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO/ WHO). He was Chair of 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 post 2010, which published its report ‘Fair Society, Healthy Lives’ in February 2010. This was followed by the European Review of Social Determinants of Health and the Health Divide for WHO EURO in 2014, and in 2020 Health Equity in England: Marmot Review 10 Years On, as well as the Build Back Fairer: the COVID-19 Marmot Review.
Prof. Marmot served as President of the British Medical Association (BMA) in 2010-2011, and as President of the World Medical Association in 2015. He 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 a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for six years. Prof. Marmot is also a Member of the National Academy of Medicine.
An extended biography is available at the Institute of Health Equality