Mark Edward John Woolhouse

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

FMedSci

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(born 1959) is professor of

infectious disease epidemiology 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 eviden ...

at the Usher Institute in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Early life and education

Mark Woolhouse was born in 1959 in

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

, Shropshire. He holds a bachelor's degree in zoology from the University of Oxford (1980), a master of science degree in biological computation from the University of York (1981) and a doctor of philosophy degree in biology from the University of Canberra (1985).

Career

Woolhouse is professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the Usher Institute in the

University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine The College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine is one of the three colleges of the University of Edinburgh. Structure The College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine is composed of two schools, with subgroups and research institutes included u ...

. Woolhouse is a fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

and of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire in the

2002 New Year Honours New Years' Honours are announced on or around the date of the New Year in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in supplements to the London Ga ...

for services to the control of infectious diseases.

COVID-19

In April 2020 Woolhouse was criticised after it emerged he had travelled to a second home on the Island of Lismore hours before lockdown rules were announced. Despite public health advice for those not normally resident on islands to return home, Woolhouse angered residents and remained there for a number of months. On 19 September 2020, when the UK faced an introduction of " COVID marshals" and an increase in the number of reported cases of COVID-19 that some like

Chris Whitty Sir Christopher John MacRae Whitty (born 21 April 1966) is a British epidemiologist serving as Chief Medical Officer for England (CMO) and Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government since 2019. He has also been Gresham Professor of Physic sinc ...

had termed a "second wave", Woolhouse instead favoured a Swedish-style model and "learn to live with COVID."

Personal life

He is married to

Francisca Mutapi Francisca Mutapi is a Professor in Global Health Infection and Immunity, co-Director of the Global Health Academy at the University of Edinburgh, and Deputy Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Global Health Research Unit ...

, a professor in Global Health Infection and Immunity. They have one daughter.

Selected publications

"How to make predictions about future infectious disease risks"
''Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London''. Vol. 366, Issue 1573 (12 July 2011), pp. 2045-2054. , , .

References

Living people British epidemiologists Academics of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Oxford Alumni of the University of York Members of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) 1959 births University of Canberra alumni Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences Associate Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences {{med-bio-stub