London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and a member institution of the University of London that specialises in public and global health, epidemiology and tropical medicine. It is focused exclusively on postgraduate education and advanced research. Founded in 1899 by the Scottish physician Sir Patrick Manson with support from the Parsi philanthropist B. D. Petit, the institution received its Royal Charter in 1924 and moved to its Art Deco headquarters in Keppel Street in 1929. In addition to its London laboratories and teaching facilities, LSHTM operates two large Medical Research Council units: the MRC Unit The Gambia and the MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, giving it a permanent research presence across Africa as well as collaborative sites in more than 100 countries. The School conducts interdisciplinary research across infectious and chronic disease epidemiology, vaccines, climate and environmental health, and health systems, and its scientists have played prominent roles in major global health emergencies, including the 2013–2016 West African Ebola epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic. The annual income of the institution for 2023–24 was £255.7 million, of which £170 million was from research grants and contracts, with expenditures totalling £191.6 million during the same period. The university has one of the largest endowments per student in the United Kingdom. LSHTM enrols roughly 1,000 postgraduate students on campus each year and a further 3,000 through distance-learning programmes, and employs more than 3,500 staff in the United Kingdom, The Gambia and Uganda. Degrees are awarded under the University of London charter, and since April 2021 the School has been led by its Director, Professor Liam Smeeth CBE.