UCL-Lancet Lecture 2026: Professor Natalia Kanem

We are delighted to announce that the 2026 UCL-Lancet Lecture will be given by Professor Natalia Kanem discussing ‘Futurecasting’ 21st Century Global Health: Anticipating Threats and Preparing Responses'.

The UCL-Lancet Lecture is a prestigious annual global health event open to the public, co-hosted by the UCL Institute for Global Health, UCL Grand Challenges and The Lancet.

In this lecture, Professor Kanem will outline potential major threats to human health globally, using a long-term lens through the year 2100; to what extent we expect populations to be affected; and crucially, how we can prepare for these threats and devise responses through prevention.

The challenges she will describe arise not only from the realm of infectious diseases, but also from such areas as climate change, antimicrobial resistance, unhealthy aging, and conflict. Professor Kanem will present methodologies used for prediction and show best and worst-case scenarios. She will show that many of these public health threats will likely not be amenable to medical interventions solely. Rather, solutions will be shared that are not only technical but rather depend upon political will and coordinated action across wide-ranging spheres and disciplines.

Programme:

16:00 – Registration opens

17:00 – Welcome, Opening Remarks & Introduction of Chair - Professor Shabbar Jaffar, UCL Institute for Global Health Director

17:05 – Meeting Chair - Dr Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet

17:10 – Keynote Lecture by Professor Natalia Kanem

18:10 – Response from Panellists

18:20 – Audience Q&A

18:50 – Closing Remarks - Dr Michael Spence, UCL President & Provost

19:00 - Networking drinks reception

20:00 - Close

About the Speaker:

Professor Natalia Kanem serves as Distinguished Scholar at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. In a career spanning four decades, she has devoted her efforts to improving the health and lives of women and children, leveraging her combined expertise in medicine, philanthropy and diplomacy to advance the reproductive health of women and girls, and uphold human rights and dignity for all. Professor Kanem co-chairs the Lancet Commission on 21st-Century Global Health Threats, an independent expert body examining critical global health challenges that significantly impact human health, with a long-term lens until the year 2100.

A world-recognised leader in public health and philanthropy, Professor Kanem was appointed as United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNFPA from 2017 to mid-2025. During her tenure, she successfully mobilised the requisite talent and resources to harness the power of population data towards championing effective, far-reaching programs to provide voluntary contraception, reduce maternal mortality, end gender-based violence and improve women’s health and wellbeing.

Previously she served as Senior Associate of the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies, as founding president of The ELMA Philanthropies, and as deputy vice president for peace and social justice programs at the Ford Foundation. She has held faculty appointments at the Columbia University and Johns Hopkins schools of medicine and public health, and is the recipient of numerous academic honours and community awards, including honorary degrees from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Benin (Nigeria), and the lifetime achievement medal of the International Conference on Family Planning.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College in History and Science with a focus on malaria and tropical medicine, Professor Kanem holds advanced degrees in medicine from Columbia University, and in epidemiology and maternal-child health from the University of Washington. She has been involved in issues relating to women’s rights since 1975, when she attended the first UN World Conference on Women as a student delegate.

Access profile:

There is step free access into the lecture theatre.

There are designated spaces for wheelchair users outside the lecture theatre and within the lecture theatre.

For full venue access details please visit the AccessAble Website.