Dr Robert Hughes
BSc MB ChB MPH
Research Fellow
LSHTM
Keppel Street
London
WC1E 7HT
United Kingdom
After initially training and practicing in clinical medicine (at Bristol University, and also including a BSc in Global Health from UCL), I completed my Masters in Public Health at Harvard School of Public Health as a Kennedy Scholar. From there, I joined the UK Department for International Development (DFID - now the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) as a Health/Nutrition Adviser, in a series of roles working in Pakistan, Yemen, Whitehall and then leading the UKaid human development programme in Zambia.
I subsequently joined the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) in London as a Senior Fellow to lead development of their Early Childhood Development strategy and programming and supporting work to build linkages between global health and climate portfolios. In addition to my role at LSHTM I work/have worked as a consultant to the Clean Air Fund (a philanthropic initiative with a mission to tackle air pollution around the world), Google X, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, WHO, and DFID.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
I co-lead the Epidemiology in Practice Module at LSHTM, and also contribute to teaching on several other modules at LSHTM, Oxford University and UCL.
Research
My research interests are orientated around the various ways in which urbanisation, climate change and accelerating technological change are transforming child health and development, primarily in low- and middle-income countries, and implications of these for intervention development and delivery.
I am currently the Field Research Director for the Nairobi Early Childcare in Slums (NECS) Study (lshtm.ac.uk/necs), a mixed-methods exploration of childcare in informal settlements in Nairobi, funded by the British Academy and a linked fellowship from Echidna Giving. In addition, I am leading a Covid Impacts Tracker sub-study exploring how COVID-19 is impacting on the care of young children in informal settlements in Nairobi, supported by Echidna Giving.
I am also leading the Cities, Climate and Children and young people Project (lshtm.ac.uk/ccc) which is focused on rapid research ‘sprints’ exploring the impacts of radical decarbonisation on child health in cities alongside children and young people’s experiences, perspectives and ideas for sustainable urban development.
Selected Publications
