Prof Robert Beaglehole

Emeritus Professor

University of Auckland, New Zealand & Chair ASH - Action for Smokefree 2025, NZ

Biography

Robert Beaglehole trained in medicine, cardiology, epidemiology and public health in New Zealand, England and the USA. His early research was on ethnic variations in cardiovascular risk, the impact of social change on chronic diseases and explanations for the decline in cardiovascular disease death rates in New Zealand and globally. He joined the University of Auckland in 1979 and was Professor of Community Health (1988-1999). In 2000 he joined the staff of the World Health Organization and between 2004 and 2007 he directed the Department of Chronic Disease and Health Promotion and initiated the Lancet Non-Communicable Diseases Action Group. In 2007 he returned to New Zealand and is now an independent global public health practitioner with a focus on the prevention and control of NCDs in New Zealand, the Pacific and globally. He founded ASH – Action for Smokefree Aotearoa in 1982 and now chairs the organisation which actively supports the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Goal by encouraging the harm reduction strategy. He is currently a Professor Emeritus at the University of Auckland.