Professor Paul Elliott CBE FMedSci FRS

Paul Elliott is distinguished for improving public health worldwide through his leadership of rigorous and innovative large-scale population studies - providing the necessary evidence for effective public health actions. For example, in the landmark INTERSALT study across 52 centres in 32 countries, he defined the importance of high sodium and low potassium intakes in raised blood pressure.


Among other pioneering research, he is Director of the UK Small Area Health Statistics Unit on environment and health. He leads COSMOS (COhort Study of MObile phone uSe and health) involving over 300,000 people across 6 European countries and the Airwave Health Monitoring Study of over 50,000 police officers and staff across Great Britain. He established the REACT programme of community occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among over 3 million people in England, contributing importantly to our understanding of COVID-19 and the emergence of new variants. REACT is also illuminating key features of Long COVID.


He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2021 for services to scientific research in public health.

Professional position

  • Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine, School of Public Health, Imperial College London

Subject groups

  • Health and Human Sciences

    Clinical epidemiology, Molecular medicine

Professor Paul Elliott CBE FMedSci FRS
Elected 2024