Deputy Director for the Life Study

Peter has a background in social sciences and has worked to establish and support other birth cohorts and longitudinal studies over the last 20 years.  Speaking about his new appointment he said:

"It is a privilege for me to join Life Study, the largest birth cohort study in the UK to date, at this key stage in the implementation.  

"I am delighted to be working with a great team and confident and enthusiastic to see the study produce a landmark resource for research in the social and biomedical sciences."

Professor Ros Smyth, Director of the Institute of Child Health said:

"Life Study is a tremendously important programme of research for the UCL Institute of Child Health and we are very pleased to welcome Peter Elias, whose leadership in social sciences is critically important in planning and implementing Life Study."

Professor Graham Hart, Dean of the UCL Faculty of Population Health Sciences said:

"I am delighted to welcome Professor Peter Elias to the Faculty. Peter is an internationally acknowledged social scientist with a long pedigree of research and publication experience of cohorts and 'big data'.

"His contribution to the social sciences was recognised in the Queen's Honours in 2011 with the award of a CBE. Peter's scientific contribution to the Life Study will be both substantive and strategic, and critical to its future success."

Life Study is hosted by the Institute of Child Health at UCL and is jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Medical Research Council (MRC), and UCL. The Study is part of the Birth Cohort Facility Project, which receives funding from the Government's Large Facilities Capital Fund.

Notes to editors:

· Life Study is hosted by the Institute of Child Health at University College London (UCL) and is jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Medical Research Council (MRC), and UCL. The work is part of the Birth Cohort Facility Project, which receives funding from the Government's Large Facilities Capital Fund.

· The Life Study is designed to investigate a wide range of influences operating in early life, which have implications for children's health, well-being and development and for the adults they will become. The Life Study will follow the lives of more than 80,000 babies and their families from across the UK.

· The Life Study will lay the foundation for a continuing longitudinal study of children born between 2014 and 2018. This will position the Life Study firmly within the UK's powerful series of major birth cohort studies as the largest and most detailed birth cohort study ever conducted in the UK.

· The ESRC is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's total budget for 2013/14 is £212 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes.

For additional information please contact:

Louise McSeveny, communications coordinator, Life Study

l.mcseveny@ucl.ac.uk or 0207 905 4297

· Visit our website at www.lifestudy.ac.uk or find us on Facebook www.facebook.com/LifeStudyUCL or Twitter @LifeStudyUCL