Steven Cummins

Professor Steven Cummins is a Professor of Population Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where he serves as Head of the Department of Public Health, Environments & Society, Co-Director of the Population Health Innovation Lab, and Lead/PI of LSHTM's membership of the NIHR School for Public Health Research. He is also an NIHR Senior Investigator with extensive experience in population health research.

His educational background includes:

• BSc in Geography
• MSc in Epidemiology from LSHTM
• PhD in Public Health from the MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow

Professor Cummins' research focuses on the social and environmental determinants of population health and health inequalities, with particular emphasis on food retail system transformation and its impact on healthy and sustainable population diets. His work investigates how technology-driven changes in food delivery, advertising, retail, and sustainability affect dietary patterns. He also explores green infrastructure and health, as well as the physical activity and environmental benefits of active transportation. His team increasingly utilizes large-scale consumer and public secondary data, along with machine-learning and agent-based modelling approaches, to better understand and intervene in food and transport systems.

His recent publications demonstrate a consistent focus on evaluating the impact of food policies on population health, particularly examining the effects of advertising restrictions, sugar taxes, and other interventions on dietary behaviors. His work often employs natural experimental designs and complex systems approaches to understand how environmental changes influence health outcomes and health inequalities across diverse populations.

Professor Cummins has received several prestigious awards:

• Phillip Leverhulme Prize
• Association for the Study of Obesity Young Achiever Award
• Two-time recipient of the European Society for Prevention Research Presidents Award

He actively supervises PhD students including Amanda Karapici, Robert Greener, Anamika Basu, and Karen Ulian, whose research aligns with his interests in food systems, health inequalities, and population health interventions. His research has been supported by major funders including ESRC, Department of Health, MRC, NIHR, NIH, The Leverhulme Trust, and The Wellcome Trust.

Professor Cummins co-directs the Population Health Innovation Lab (PHI-Lab), an interdisciplinary research group with over 15 academic staff and PhD students. The PHI-Lab focuses on two core research themes: Environmental and system drivers of health (including built and natural environment effects on diet and physical activity), and Food systems, economics and health (including economic drivers of food choice using big data). The lab is affiliated with the NIHR School of Public Health Research and several LSHTM research centers.