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Professor Gerry Stimson Director, Knowledge-Action-Change (KAC), London
Biography
A public health social scientist, with over 40 years’ experience of public health research and advocacy in the field of psychoactive substance use.
He was one of the founders of harm reduction and instrumental in the development and evaluation of harm reduction in the UK as a response to HIV/AIDS.
Recently he has become an ardent advocate for tobacco harm reduction. He runs a website on nicotine, and is organising the First Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw at the end of June.
He has advised the UK Government, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UNODC, World Bank and numerous working groups on issues relating to drugs, hepatitis, HIV infection and AIDS, alcohol and tobacco. He was a member of the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines group on tobacco harm reduction.
Gerry Stimson has published over 220 scientific publications and several books. His work focuses on reducing harms from psychoactive substance use, and improving public health through social and health policy.
He is Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London, and the Editor of the International Journal of Drug Policy. He founded the Department of Social Science and Medicine at Imperial College. From 1990 to 2004, he was Director of the Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour. He was Executive Director of the International Harm Reduction Association from 2004 to 2010.
He now directs Knowledge-Action-Change, a public health consultancy company, and is an ardent tobacco harm reduction advocate.
