Professor Prabhat Jha has been appointed as Nuffield Professor of Population Health and Head of the Nuffield Department of Population Health. He will succeed Professor Sir Rory Collins who has been Head of Department since its inception in 2013.
Professor Jha studied Medicine at the University of Manitoba and was awarded a DPhil in Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Oxford, where he was supervised by the late Professor Dame Valerie Beral and Professor Sir Richard Peto. He is currently the University Professor of Global Health and Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Temerity School of Medicine, University of Toronto, and Director of the Centre for Global Health Research, Unity Health Toronto. He has served on a number of advisory boards and has been a health adviser to several governments.
Professor Jha said ‘It is a unique privilege to succeed Professor Sir Rory Collins as Head of Department. The department is internationally renowned for providing definitive evidence on some of the most important health-related questions, and for pioneering new methods that have changed the way population research is undertaken. I look forward to working with the department’s multidisciplinary teams to continue to improve the health of millions of people and prevent avoidable suffering around the world.’
Professor Jha’s research focuses on large-scale epidemiological studies of the major causes of death in developing countries (including tobacco, alcohol, cardiometabolic risk factors, and air pollution), and epidemiological research methods in low-resource settings, including randomised intervention studies. He is also particularly interested in the use of routine mortality data for analytic epidemiology, and tobacco control policy in developed and developing countries. His research enabled a worldwide treaty on tobacco control signed now by 180 countries. He has quantified malaria mortality in children and adults in various settings, leading to vaccine trials.
Professor Sir Rory Collins said ‘I am delighted that we will soon be welcoming Professor Jha to the department. We have a long history of groundbreaking research that has included demonstrating the devastating effects of tobacco, alcohol, and “bad” cholesterol and providing policy-changing evidence on the causes, prevention and treatment of a range of diseases. Prabhat’s research interests and his commitment to providing the best possible working and learning environment for our staff and students will ensure the continued success of the department.’
Professor Jha was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012 for his contributions to epidemiology and the economics of global health. He has received a number of other awards, including the 2022 Award of Excellence from the American Public Health Association and the 2012 American Cancer Society’s Luther L Terry Award for Outstanding Research Contribution for his globally influential research on tobacco control.
Professor Gavin Screaton, Head of the Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, added ‘On behalf of the Medical Sciences Division, I am pleased to welcome Prabhat back to the University and wish him every success in his new post. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Rory Collins for the huge contribution he has made as Head of Department.’
Professor Adalsteinn Brown, Dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto stated ‘Prabhat is an outstanding epidemiologist with global impact. On behalf of the University of Toronto, we warmly congratulate him on this distinct appointment. His role will help to deepen the already strong scholarly ties between our two fine universities.’
Professor Jha will take up the post with effect from 1 September 2025. He will hold a professorial fellowship at St John’s College.