Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh

I joined the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences as Nuffield Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences on 1 August 2024 and look forward to taking on the Head of Department role from 1 October 2024.  I am particularly keen to work with colleagues from across the Department, Division, University and beyond to advance individual and population health through the delivery of high quality primary care provision globally.

Prior to joining the University of Oxford, I held the Chair of Primary Care Research and Development at the University of Edinburgh where I also served as Director of the Usher Institute and on the University’s Executive as its Dean of Data. 

Primary care is the foundation on which personalised, effective and efficient health systems need to be built.  My own work has sought to advance primary care provision through undertaking work into the epidemiology, diagnosis, prevention and management of common conditions, particularly in respiratory health.  It has in this respect been an incredible honour to establish and lead the 17-university Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research (with Chris Griffiths), the NIHR RESPIRE Global Respiratory Health Unit (with Harry Campbell), the EAVE II platform (with Chris Robertson) and the HDR UK BREATHE Hub (with Jenni Quint). 

More broadly, my research interests extend to data science and health policy with a focus on leveraging the UK’s outstanding health data assets to advance human health in the UK and globally.

I have had the privilege of working on a number of governmental and inter-governmental bodies, including with the World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Innovation Summit for Health, and serving on the committees of leading scientific bodies, including the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society.

I was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for ‘Services to Medicine and Health Care’ in 2014 and a Knight Bachelor in 2022 for ‘Services to COVID-19 Research and Policy’.

I would be pleased to hear from prospective DPhil students interested in respiratory health, health data science and health policy