Facing the Public Health Future

This event is being held at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, Room 2.55 from 12.30 -14.30pm on Thursday 18 September 2025.

RSA Fellows, Edinburgh University students and staff, and anyone with an interest in thinking about Public Health challenges and solutions for the future are encouraged to join Professor Devi Sridhar and others to discuss this topic. This will be an opportunity to discuss Professor Devi Sridhar’s new book “How not to die (too soon) – the lies we’ve been sold and the policies that can save us”. As well as discussing Devi’s new book, there will be a facilitated discussion, including academics, RSA Fellows and alumni from the Edinburgh Masters in Public Health Programme (MPH). These will be stimulating, challenging and important discussions.

There will also be opportunities for book signing by Devi Sridhar.

Devi Sridhar is a Professor at the University of Edinburgh where she holds a Personal Chair in Global Public Health. She is Founding Director of the Global Health Governance Programme and has held a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award. Devi is the author of several books including her latest one ‘How not to die (too soon)’.

Professor Cathie Sudlow is Director of the Usher Institute and Head of School for Population Health Sciences. She is also Director of the UKRI Adolescent Health Study (AHS). Cathie is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She was awarded an OBE for services to medical research in 2020. In 2023, Prof Sudlow was commissioned by the Chief Medical Officer for England, the UK National Statistician and NHS England to undertake an independent review of the UK-wide health data landscape. “Uniting the UK’s Health Data: A Huge Opportunity for Society” was published in November 2024, it sets out a bold vision for how the barriers and inefficiencies that currently delay the safe and secure use of health data to improve lives can be overcome, with key recommendations to transform the health data ecosystem. Cathie’s research interests have always been firmly embedded in the world of big data. Over the last 15 years, her focus has been on leading large-scale, collaborative, open-science initiatives that enable a better understanding of the causes and consequences of health and disease across the life course, leading to new and improved approaches to prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Nason Maani is a Senior Lecturer in Inequalities and Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh’s Global Health Policy Unit, in the School of Social and Political Science. His research focuses on the commercial determinants of health, seeking to describe the mechanisms through which commercial actors affect health inequalities, knowledge, and public discourse. He is editor of the Oxford University Press textbook “the Commercial Determinants of Health”, and author of the upcoming book “A Healthy Profit”, published in 2026 by Oxford University Press. He serves as Deputy Director of the Local Health, Global Profits Research theme in the UKRI Population Health Improvement, is a Commonwealth Fund Senior Harkness Fellow, a Fellow of the UK Royal Society of the Arts, and the host of Money Power Health, a podcast series discussing the social and commercial forces that shape health.

Please note, all attendees will be required to bring their booking ticket (digital ticket accepted) and photographic ID due to security restrictions.

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