Liam Smeeth

Professor Liam Smeeth serves as the Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and holds a professorship in clinical epidemiology. He maintains an active clinical practice as a doctor in NHS general practice while leading one of the world's premier institutions for public and global health research. His leadership extends to co-chairing the BMJ Commission on the Future of the NHS and serving on the strategic oversight committee for UK Biobank.

Professor Smeeth's research focuses on clinical epidemiology with particular emphasis on electronic health records, disease aetiology, drug effects, genetics, health and climate change, and non-communicable diseases in low income settings. He co-led the creation of the OpenSafely resource during the COVID-19 pandemic and helped establish the 100 million cohort in Brazil. His work bridges the gap between primary care data and large-scale epidemiological research, with significant contributions to understanding vaccine safety, chronic disease management, and pandemic response.

His publications demonstrate a consistent trajectory from early work on vaccine safety (including the influential 2004 MMR study) to contemporary research on climate health impacts, diabetes in African populations, and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 outcomes. The OpenSAFELY platform represents a major methodological contribution to rapid pandemic research using routinely collected health data.

• Elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences
• Recipient of fellowships from MRC, NIHR and Wellcome
• Former Trustee of the British Heart Foundation
• Former non-executive director of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
• Co-chair of the BMJ Commission on the Future of the NHS

Professor Smeeth has been instrumental in establishing major research infrastructure including the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) and OpenSAFELY platform. His work on the 100 million cohort in Brazil represents significant international collaboration in global health research. While specific grant details aren't provided in the text, his sustained research program supported by major UK funders indicates substantial research funding throughout his career.