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Prof Catherine Law
Professorial Research Associate
Population, Policy & Practice Dept
UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
- Joined UCL
- 3rd Sep 2003
Research summary
Catherine's research programme on public health for children produces primary and secondary research with direct application to policy and policymaking. Catherine’s research interests include the wider determinants of health, a life course approach to developing health policy, obesity and physical growth, health behaviours, and inequalities in child health.
Catherine has an active interest in the use and development of research for public policy. She was the scientific secretary of the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health (1997-8), commissioned by the previous UK Government to inform its health policy, co-ordinated the Department of Health’s Research and Development Strategy for Public Health (2001), and collated the evidence base for the National Service Framework for Children and Young People (2004, Department of Health). She continues to work with the Department of Health and other policymaking organisations at the interface of research and policy.
Until the end of 2018 Catherine was Co-Director of the Policy Research Unit in the the Health of Children, Young People and Families (CPRU, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/cpru/). She is also a member of the Public Health Research Consortium (PHRC,http://www.york.ac.uk/phrc/). The CPRU and PHRC are funded by the Department of Health Policy Research Programme. Catherine is an Emeritus NIHR Senior Investigator and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Education
- To be updated
- Doctorate, Doctor of Medicine | 1989
- Royal College of Physicians
- Doctorate, Member of the Royal College of Physicians | 1981
- University of London
- Doctorate, Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery | 1979
Biography
Catherine graduated in medicine from University of London in
1979. She trained in paediatrics and academic child health in London, gaining
her doctorate at the Institute of Child Health, and proceeding to postdoctoral
studies in maternal and child health, epidemiology and public health at Johns
Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, USA.
After returning to the UK in 1987, she held an academic post at the Medical
Research Council Environmental Epidemiology Unit (now MRC Lifecourse
Epidemiology Unit), University of Southampton until 2003, as well as honorary
posts in public health medicine at regional and district health authorities and
working as a senior medical officer on secondment to the Department of Health.
She moved to UCL Institute of Child Health in 2003 as a Reader in Children’s
health and to set up a programme of work in research relevant to policy.
She is now Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology and
Deputy Director (Strategy and Partnerships) at UCL Institute of Child Health. She is also Vice Dean for Research in the Faculty of Population Health Sciences. Her research interests are in child public health, particularly
physical growth, inequalities in health, and the use of research for public
policy. She was inaugural Chair of the Public Health Advisory Committee of NICE
(the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) from 2005-2015. From 2008-2014 she was
inaugural Programme Director of the National Institute of Health Research’s
(NIHR) Public Health Research Programme. She is Chair of the Medical Research Council Global Health Group and a member of MRC Strategy Board. She is also a member of the WHO Europe Advisory Committee on Health Research. Catherine is an Emeritus NIHR Senior Investigator and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. She was appointed CBE (for services to public health) in 2014.