Michael G. Marmot

Early life and education Marmot was born in London on 26 January 1945. When he was a young child, his family moved to Sydney in Australia, where he attended Sydney Boys High School (1957–1961) and graduated with an MBBS medical degree from the University of Sydney in 1969.

He earned an MPH degree in 1972

Career He was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for six years and in the New Year Honours 2000 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, for services to epidemiology and the understanding of health inequalities.

Marmot advised the WHO. He was chair of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), which was set up by the World Health Organization 2005, and in August 2008 he produced for the commission a report called Closing the Gap in a Generation.

Marmot gave the Harveian Oration in 2006.

He leads the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), and is engaged in several international research efforts on the social determinants of health. He served as president of the British Medical Association (BMA) from 2010 to 2011, and is the new president of the British Lung Foundation.

Marmot served as president of the World Medical Association for 2015–16. During his tenure he faced calls to eject the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) from the World Medical Association, owing to the evidence of Israeli doctors complicity with the torture of Palestinians. He received criticism for not only refusing to eject the IMA but also accepting the IMA's stated commitment to medical ethics without investigating any of the torture claims.

Marmot was elected member of the Academia Europaea in 1995.

Marmot was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to public health.

Memberships Marmot was elected as a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) in 1989. He became a fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (FFPHM) in 1989, a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 1998, and was elected an honorary fellow of the British Academy (Hon FBA) also in 2008.

He has been furthermore elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health (Hon FRSPH) in 2008, an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (Hon FRCPsych) in 2013, and an honorary fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (Hon FFPH).

Marmot has a special interest in inequalities in health and their causes, and has been a government advisor in seeking to identify ways to mitigate them. He served on the Scientific Advisory Group of the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health chaired by Sir Donald Acheson, the former UK chief medical officer. This reported in November 1998.

In The Status Syndrome: How your social standing directly affects your health and life expectancy, he argues that socio-economic position is an important determinant for health outcomes. This result holds even if we control for the effects of income, education and risk factors (such as smoking) on health. The causal pathway Marmot identifies concerns the psychic benefits of "being in control" of one's life. Autonomy in this sense is related to our socio-economic position. Based on comparative studies, Marmot argues that we can make our society more participatory and inclusive to increase overall public health.

In 2008, Marmot appeared in Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?, an American documentary series examining the social determinants of health that drew heavily from Marmot's work on the Whitehall Studies.

In November 2008, Marmot was asked by the Secretary of State for Health to chair an independent review of health inequalities in England, tasked with proposing the most effective evidence based strategies for reducing them after 2010. The review reported in February 2010 as Fair Society, Healthy Lives. It found that life expectancy is falling among the poorest people and particularly amongst women in certain English regions. Published in the same year, Build Back Fairer: The COVID-19 Marmot Review explored connections between inequality in socioeconomic conditions and COVID-19 death tolls, recommending investing in public health. In 2021, a follow-up report looking at Greater Manchester noted a greater fall in life expectancy in the poorer areas of the county. It made recommendations around improving living standards, working conditions and increasing prospects for young people.

In 2022, Marmot warned of the risk of "a humanitarian crisis" the next winter caused by "fuel poverty", which could have long-term consequences mostly for the young and least well-off.

Selected bibliography Books

Journal articles and research Marmot, M (2021) Build Back Fairer in Greater Manchester

Awards and honours 2024 Honorary Doctor of Medicine by the University of St Andrews 2023 Appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to public health, 2023 New Year Honours 2007 Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Foundation Hero Award 2006 Winner BMA Book Awards 2006 (Public Health) 2006 Harveian Oration, Royal College of Physicians 2004 Balzan Prize for Epidemiology 2004 Alwyn Smith Prize Medal for distinguished service to public health, Faculty of Public Health 2004 Bisset Hawkins Medal, Royal College of Physicians 2003 Visiting Fellow Commoner, Trinity College, Cambridge 2002 Decade of Behaviour Distinguished Speaker, Gerontological Society of America 2002 Patricia B Barchas Award, American Psychosomatic Society