Professor Chris Whitty

Biography
Professor Chris Whitty is Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England, the UK government’s Chief Medical Adviser and head of the public health profession.
Chris is also Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), with overall responsibility for the department’s research and development, including the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the government’s major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. He represents the UK on the Executive Board of the World Health Organization.
Chris is a practising NHS Consultant Physician at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, and Gresham Professor of Physic at Gresham College.
Chris is an epidemiologist and has undertaken research and worked as a doctor in the UK, Africa and Asia. He was Professor of Public and International Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) before becoming CMO.
Chris was the interim Government Chief Scientific Adviser from 2017 to 2018, including during the Novichok poisonings. Before that, he was was the Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for International Development (DFID), which included leading technical work on the West Africa Ebola outbreak and other international emergencies.
Chief Medical Officer
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) acts as the UK government’s principal medical adviser, and the professional head of all directors of public health in local government and the medical profession in government.
The CMO provides public health and clinical advice to ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and across government.
The CMO is an independent position at permanent secretary level.
The CMO is supported by 3 Deputy Chief Medical Officers:
DHSC Chief Scientific Adviser
Responsibilities include:
- overall responsibility for the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) research policies and budget, including being head of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
- supporting analysis and evidenced-based decision-making capacity in the department
- working with Chief Scientific Advisers across government to maximise the impact of science to benefit the UK population
Previous roles in government
- Interim Head of Government Science and Engineering Profession
- Interim Government Chief Scientific Adviser
- Deputy Government Chief Scientific Adviser
- DFID Chief Scientific Adviser