Spotlight on... Professor Shabbar Jaffar

What is your role and what does it involve?  

I am the Director of the UCL Institute for Global Health. I am an epidemiologist and clinical trialist and, in partnership with colleagues in Africa, am involved in intervention studies on the prevention and management of HIV, diabetes and hypertension.    

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

30 months at UCL. Previously, I was at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) for seven years, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) for 20-something years. In the last 10 of all these years, I had both an academic role and a bit of a management role.

I have lived for periods in the Gambia, South Africa, Uganda and Malawi, a privilege of working in global health.    

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?

I like my new role – thinking strategically, planning. We have made a lot of changes to the structure of the Institute and introduced new processes. While doing this, I have managed to not ruin my research, and am very proud of my colleagues who I often collaborate with, and who also support me.

Tell us about a project you are working on now which is top of your to-do list?

At the Institute, the most exciting stuff at the moment is the expansion of and changes to our Education portfolio. I have also been working on research on evaluating the scale up of integrated care services for chronic conditions in Tanzania and Uganda... and dreaming about learning French before the summer.

What is your favourite album, film and novel?

I have a large music collection from various places I have lived, including West African music, Bollywood music, classic Indian music, and Sufi music, as well lots from the West. I have music on during all hours that I am awake – I was in Spotify’s top two percent of listeners worldwide in 2024.

My favourite films are Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. I don’t have time to read novels but do read other stuff.    

What is your favourite joke (pre-watershed)?  

I am terrible at telling jokes! But I enjoy comedy programmes like Have I Got News For You and Dead Ringers on Radio 4.    

Who would be your dream dinner guests?

Richard Attenborough and Al Gore. Failing that, I’d love to have dinner again with the friends who came to my wedding in South Africa in 2006. They came from different parts of the world, bringing their charm, diversity and friendliness, and then dispersed away.    

What advice would you give your younger self?

Eat less and exercise more – the same advice that I give myself today. My wife says lessons on work-life balance would have been good; but too late now.    

What would it surprise people to know about you?

Despite my rather posh accent and posh clothes, I grew up in a not-so-posh rural village on the Kashmir and Punjab border in Pakistan, where, at the time, the under five-year old death rate was 500 per 1000 live births. It was largely lawless and so the adult death rate was also pretty high. We came to the UK when I just turning nine. I saw pavements, double decker buses, trains, double storey houses and started going to school and learning English.    

What is your favourite place?

I have many favourite places but for many years, Cape Vidal near Durban stood out to me. Right now, it’s probably Kingston, near London.