Aubrey Sheiham (12 September 1936 – 24 November 2015) was born in

Graaff-Reinet Graaff-Reinet is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the oldest town in the province. It is also the sixth-oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, Paarl and Swellendam. The town was the ...

, South Africa and became a British academic, a dental

epidemiologist Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidenc ...

and emeritus professor of Dental Public Health, School of Life and Medical Sciences at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. He was an inspiring lecturer and opened out and developed the field of public oral health and dentistry. He graduated from the

University of Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

in 1957. He was the spouse of the British philosopher

Helena Cronin Helena Cronin (born 1942) is a British Darwinian philosopher and rationalist. She is the co-director of the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science and the Darwin Centre at the London School of Economics. Cronin's important work is ...

. Sheiham died of

mesothelioma Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that develops from the thin layer of tissue that covers many of the internal organs (known as the mesothelium). The most common area affected is the lining of the lungs and chest wall. Less commonly the lining ...

. The Audrey Sheiham Evidence-Based Health Care in Africa Leadership Award has been granted annually by the

Cochrane Collaboration Cochrane (previously known as the Cochrane Collaboration) is a British international charitable organisation formed to organise medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving health profess ...

since 2001 to a researcher from a low to middle income country. The funding for the award comes from an endowment by Sheiham and Cronin.

References

1936 births 2015 deaths British epidemiologists Academics of University College London British dentists People from Graaff-Reinet Deaths from mesothelioma University of the Witwatersrand alumni 20th-century dentists {{UK-academic-bio-stub