Judith Longstaff Mackay, SBS, OBE, JP, FRCP (Edin), FRCP (Lon) (born 1943 in Yorkshire, England) is a British-born and Hong Kong–based medical doctor and international

tobacco control Tobacco control is a field of international public health science, policy and practice dedicated to addressing tobacco use and thereby reducing the morbidity and mortality it causes. Since most cigarettes and cigars and hookahs contain/use ...

advocate who has led a campaign against tobacco in Asia from 1984 onwards, campaigning for tax increases to discourage youth smoking, for the creation of smoke-free areas, and against tobacco promotion. Her main interests are tobacco in low-income countries, women and tobacco, and challenging the transnational tobacco companies.

Education

Mackay completed her medical training in Edinburgh and is now a

Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

of Edinburgh and London. Mackay holds professorships at the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, the School of Public Health at the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...

, and the

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university an ...

Career

Following a career in hospital medicine, since 1989 Mackay has been the executive director of the Hong Kong–based Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control. Mackay is a Senior Policy Advisor to the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

. From 2006 to 2020 she was Senior Advisor, Vital Strategies, part of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use in Low and Middle-income countries. While still based in Hong Kong, she is currently Special Advisor to the Global Center for Good Governance on Tobacco Control based in Thailand. She has published about 270 papers and spoken at over 600 conferences on public health, especially tobacco control, and serves as advisor or on the board of many international health organisations, for example Patron, Clear the Air; Hon Consultant, Department of Health, Government of Hong Kong SAR. She feels passionately about converting health statistics into maps and graphics, and has authored or co-authored 12 atlases, most published by

Myriad Editions Myriad Editions is an independent UK publishing house based in Brighton and Hove, specialising in topical atlases, graphic non-fiction and original fiction, whose output also encompasses graphic novels that span a variety of genres, including me ...

Awards

In 1988 she was awarded the World Health Organization Commemorative Medal, in 1989 the US Surgeon General's medallion, and in 1992 the APACT Presidential Award. In 2000 she was selected by her peers for the Luther Terry Award for Outstanding Individual Leadership. In 2006 she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Network of Women Against Tobacco (INWAT), the Silver Bauhinia Star by the Hong Kong government, and the 60 Asian Heroes Award by ''

TIME Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

''. In 2007 she received the

Time 100 ''Time'' 100 (often stylized as ''TIME'' 100) is an annual listicle of the 100 most influential people in the world, assembled by the American news magazine ''Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, po ...

award for her work, in 2008 an OBE from Queen Elizabeth, and in 2009 the first-ever ''

British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...

'' award for lifetime achievement. She has received an award from His Majesty the King of Thailand for her work in Tobacco Control. In 2010, her work was profiled by CNN. In 2015 she received an honorary degree, Doctor of Social Sciences honoris causa, from Hong Kong Shue Yan University. In 2016 she received an honorary degree, Doctor honoris causa, from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, Scotland, her alma mater. She has been named as one of the three most dangerous people in the world by the tobacco industry.

Publications

*''The State of Health Atlas''.

; Simon and Schuster 1993. English and American editions (Simon and Schuster); German (Dietz); French (Editions Autrement); Swedish (Bokskogen
Health Atlas
*''The Penguin Atlas of Human Sexual Behavior''
Myriad Editions
Penguin, 2000; (and in French and German) *''The Tobacco Atlas'' (with Dr Michael Eriksen)
Myriad Editions
World Health Organization, 2002, *''The Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke'' (with Dr George A. Mensah)
Myriad Editions
World Health Organization, 2004, *''The Tobacco Atlas'', 2nd edn (with Dr Michael Eriksen, Dr Omar Shafey)
Myriad Editions
American Cancer Society, 2006, *''The Cancer Atlas'' (with Ahmedin Jemal, Nancy Lee, Maxwell Parkin)
Myriad Editions
American Cancer Society, 2006, *''The Tobacco Atlas'', 3rd edn (with Dr Omar Shafey, Dr Michael Eriksen, Dr Hana Ross). The American Cancer Society and

World Lung Foundation World Lung Foundation (WLF) is a non-profit foundation established in 2004 to support private organizations and government agencies, who work to improve lung health, predominantly in low- and middle-income countries. WLF provides financial and t ...

, 2009 *''The Global Tobacco Surveillance System Atlas'' (with Charles W. Warren, Samira Asma, Juliette Lee, Veronica Lea). Myriad Editions
Centers for Disease Control Foundation, USA
2009 *''The Oral Health Atlas'' (with Roby Beaglehole, Habib Benzian, Jon Crail)
Myriad Editions
FDI World Dental Federation 2009 *''The Tobacco Atlas'', 4th edn (with Michael Eriksen and Hana Ross). The American Cancer Society and

, 2012
''The Tobacco Atlas''
5th edn (with Michael Eriksen, Neil Schluger, Farhad Islami Gomeshtapeh, Jeffrey Drope). The American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation, 2015. *''The GATS Atlas (Global Adult Tobacco Survey)'' (with S. Asma, S. Y. Song, L. Zhao, J. Morton, K. M. Palipudi, et al.), CDC Foundation, Atlanta, GA, USA, 2015. *''How COVID-19 took over the world: lessons for the future'' (with Christine Loh et al.), Hong Kong University Press, 2023.

References

External links