About us

Our Mission

The Imperial College London School of Public Health contributes to achieving better health in the population through:

• Strengthening epidemiology and public health research
• Training the next generation of public health leaders
• Influencing health policies and programmes around the world.

Obesity, cancer, heart disease, dementia and infectious and parasitic diseases are among the major global public health challenges in the 21st Century. Imperial’s School of Public Health, under the Directorship of Professor Elio Riboli, is committed to improving health in populations throughout the world.

The School of Public Health is unique in combining world-class research at local, national and international level with translational work within the Academic Health Science Centre in Imperial College Healthcare Trust. The School combines world-class research at the local, national and international level, translating science and epidemiology into policy, health education and primary care. Together with its research, teaching and evidence-led policy work, the School of Public Health aims to address the major public health challenges of the 21st century.

Supporting excellence in research

The School’s strength lies in being able to draw on the critical mass of research expertise found throughout its departments and across Imperial College London. Located in Central London covering the St Mary’s, Hammersmith Hospital and Charing Cross campuses, it has close links with the Imperial College Academic Health Sciences Centre, the Imperial College Healthcare Trust and the Interventional Public Health Clinical Programme Group.

Research from the School scored in the top two epidemiology and public health submissions to the UK’s 2009 Research Assessment Exercise. The School has a significant research portfolio with research grants and contracts in excess of £25 million per year.

The departments of the School of Public Health are Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Primary Care and Public Health, Genomics of Common Disease, Imperial College Trials Unit (cross College) and the Neuroepidemiology and Ageing Unit.

In addition the School hosts the MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health, and the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling.

Training the next generation

With a reputation for excellence in teaching, the School of Public Health currently has 230 students enrolled on a comprehensive series of PhD, Masters and BSc programmes. The School also runs professional short courses. All academic and research staff working at the cutting edge of their research areas are engaged in teaching, demonstrating that the School takes seriously its aim to train the next generation of leaders in public health.

Influencing Policy

Complementary to the Government’s public health ambitions the School of Public Health provides a strong voice in the development of health policies, in line with government public health ambitions. For example, our research on new ways of treating and preventing HIV has been used to assist organisations including the Institute of Medicine, UNAIDS, AIDS 2031 and the World Bank in developing strategies for responding to the AIDS pandemic.

The School of Public Health, therefore, is in an ideal position to carry out world-class research, provide highest quality undergraduate and postgraduate education, and to translate these into improvements in healthcare and health policy at local, national and international levels.