Steven Cummins
BSc MSc PhD
Professor
of Population Health
LSHTM
15-17 Tavistock Place
London
WC1H 9SH
United Kingdom
Steven, a geographer (BSc) with training in epidemiology (MSc) and public health (PhD), joined LSHTM in 2012 after holding posts at Queen Mary, University of London and the MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow.
His research interests include the social and environmental determinants of population health and health inequalities; evaluation of complex population health interventions, complex systems thinking, use of natural experiments in evidence-based policy, and the research-policy interface. Much of this work focuses on improving diet and increasing physical activity; reducing obesity and diabetes; and improving psychological wellbeing.
Externally he serves as Panel Chair for the NIHR Doctoral Fellowships Programme, serves as a NIHR Mentor and is a member of the Cancer Research UK Expert Review Panel on Prevention.
AT LSHTM, he is Head of the Department of Public Health, Environments & Society, Co-Director of the Population Health Innovation Lab (PHI-Lab) and PI of the NIHR School of Public Health Research@LSHTM (SPHR@L).
Steven’s research has been supported by a wide range of funders including ESRC, Department of Health, MRC, NIHR, NIH, The Leverhulme Trust and The Wellcome Trust. His work has been recognised by the award of Phillip Leverhulme Prize and the Association for the Study of Obesity Young Achiever Award.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
I am a Seminar Leader for Principles of Social Research (MSc Publc Health) and contribute lectures to the Evidence-based Policy & Practice (DrPH Programme) and Social Epidemiology (MSc Epidemiology) modules.
I also supervise MSc tutees and a number of PhD and DrPH students.
Research
Steven is Co-Director of the Population Health Innovation Lab. PHI|Lab aims to use insights from epidemiology, economics, sociology and geography to understand and change the social, economic and environmental system drivers of population health.
The group has particular expertise in diet and physical activity and are using findings from our research to test and evaluate policies and interventions that have the potential to improve health at the population level.
To achieve this we work collaboratively with leading researchers, policymakers and practitioners locally, nationally and internationally.
Major funded projects have included ORiEL, a 5-year prospective study of the health and social legacy of London 2012 Olympics (NIHR, 2011-16); the National Evaluation of the Healthy Towns Programme (DH PRP, 2009-13); evaluation of the Forestry Commission Scotland's Social Forestry programmes (NIHR, 2012-16); active design and physical activity (NIHR, 2015-2018), the evaluation of the effect of the sugary drinks industry level (NIHR, 2017-22) and an impact evlauation of the restrictions on advertising of HFSS foods on the Transport for London network (NIHR 2019-2021).
In addition, PHI-Lab is lucky to host the recepients of a number of personal research and training fellowships from MRC (Dr Laura Cornelsen) and Wellcome Trust (Dr Claire Thompson) which focus on a range of topics including, food security, food environment and diet and the economics of food pricing.
PHI-Lab is affiliated to the NIHR School of Public Health Research as LSHTM (SPHR@L), the LSHTM Centre for Evaluation, and the LSHTM Centre for Global Non-communicable Disease.
Please visit the PHI-Lab website for updates
Selected Publications
