LSHTM Alumni eNews

Forthcoming Alumni Events in the USA and Switzerland

We will be holding an alumni reception in Atlanta, Georgia on Friday 5 November. Further information is available on our Events web-page. If you would like to attend this event please book online by 25 October. We will be holding an alumni meeting in Denver, Colorado on Monday 8 November during the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. Further information about this event will be posted on the Events web-page in October. We will be holding an alumni reception in Montreux, Switzerland on Wednesday 17 November during the First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research. If you would like to attend this event please book online by 8 November. If you have any questions about any of the forthcoming alumni events please email the Alumni Office.

Photographs of recent alumni events

You can view photographs of alumni receptions in Vienna, Austria, Abuja, Nigeria, New Delhi, India and Nairobi Kenya in the Alumni Photo Gallery.

Alumni Photo Competition

LSHTM is running a photo competition for alumni. Alumni are encouraged to submit photos which represent their time at the School or their subsequent life and work. We are keen to include photos from all around the world which reflect the work, communities and countries of our alumni. The winning entry, chosen by a judging panel, will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Alumni News, the Chariot and on the website, and the photographer will receive a £25 gift voucher. All entries will be available for staff, students, alumni and the public to view in PhotoLibrary. The deadline for entries is 31 December. Read More

Read the latest issue of the Alumni Magazine

The 2010 issue of Alumni News, the alumni magazine, is available online . Back issues of Alumni News and Alumni eNews are available on the Alumni News web-page.

New International Alumni Chapters in Germany and Kenya

We are delighted to announce that new Alumni Chapters are being established in Berlin, Germany and Nairobi, Kenya. You can contact the Berlin Chapter at lshtmberlin@gmail.com and the Nairobi Chapter at nairobi.lshtm.alumni@gmail.com.We also have alumni chapters in Canada, Malawi, Spain and the USA. To contact these chapters, or for information about setting up your own chapter, please visit the Alumni Chapters web-pages.

LSHTM International Chapter Event in Washington, DC

The Washington DC Chapter is launching an LSHTM Seminar Series. Alumni are invited to join the first seminar, "Progress and Challenges in Global Health", with special guest speaker distinguished LSHTM alumnus Dr Daniel Carucci, on Thursday 7 October from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. For further information please email the Washington, DC chapter.

Upcoming Short Courses

We are still accepting applications for the following short courses; Causal Inference in Epidemiology: Recent Methodological Developments and the Certificate in Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance. Further information about all the LSHTM short study programmes is available on the Short Courses web-pages.

Careers News: View the latest LSHTM targeted employment opportunities

Alumni can search for employment opportunities on our targeted Careers Vacancies page. This site includes full time vacancies, research studentships and voluntary opportunities at organisations around the world. Visit the LSHTM Jobsite for current job vacancies at LSHTM.

LSHTM News: After the Millennium Development Goals: lessons learned and future goal setting examined in new commission

A new blueprint for international development was published in The Lancet ahead of the UN's major summit about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). LSHTM staff contributed to the report, particularly the sections relating to health, including maternal and child mortality, and HIV/AIDS. Read More Watch

Audio Podcast: Millennium Goals: mired in excrement?

Without better lavatories and safe water we will fail to meet the Millennium Development Goals, according to a new report published by the charity WaterAid from researchers in Zambia, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, Uganda, East Timor, the USA and the UK. The authors say that millions of lives are being lost because of governments' and aid agencies' "blind-spots" - leading to sanitation being ignored. One of the authors, Sandy Cairncross Professor of Environmental Health at LSHTM discusses the report. Listen

LSHTM News: Publication of World Health Report 2000 'an act of remarkable courage', says LSHTM Professor

Ten years on, Martin McKee, Professor of European Health at LSHTM reflects on the report that placed health system performance rankings firmly on political agenda. It is ten years since the publication of WHR2000, a controversial document which many at the time believed had been published prematurely, and which introduced a new system of performance rankings applied to the health systems of each country. McKee recalls how few observers believed that the World Health Organization would sanction such a system, given its sensitivity to complaints from health ministers in member states and the lengths its legal department go to in order to avoid appearing critical. Yet, in what he calls 'an act of remarkable courage', it did, leading to predictable responses from the winners and losers. Read More

LSHTM News: Development aid for maternal, newborn and child health doubled over five years thanks largely to just a few donors

The amount of official development assistance (ODA) to maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) in developing countries doubled between 2003 and 2008, but its ratio to overall aid for health remained static. The USA, UK, EU, GAVI and the Global Fund have made the largest absolute increases, while Spain and a number of small bilateral donors including New Zealand and Belgium have made significant percentage increases, but support from many others has stagnated or fallen, and in some cases fluctuated significantly from year to year. Read More

LSHTM News: World environmental health experts call on governments to push the environment up the political agenda

Over 200 international experts from academic institutions, government bodies and civil society groups met at LSHTM on 18 to 20 August to discuss the major challenges facing people, wildlife and ecosystems at the Ecohealth 2010 conference. At the conference, scientists called on governments to focus their attention on environmental issues and not to lose sight of environmental goals during the economic downturn. They specifically emphasised the perspectives of people most vulnerable to the harms of ecosystem destruction including indigenous people, women and children. Read More

LIDC News: Breaking the 'Silence' on Global Population Issues

Repeated pleas for more family planning services and an enlightened approach to population issues were made at an event to mark World Population Day. Distinguished academics spoke about the failure of the international community, and called for maternal and child health to be recognised as paramount at the symposium in London. They emphasised the need to break the 'silence' on population matters as their impact on health and the environment cannot be ignored, especially as the world's growing population is expected to reach nine billion by 2050. The speakers said family planning was about promoting human rights and sustainability, and they widely dismissed the phrase 'population control'. Read More

LSHTM News: More heart attacks in cooler weather

Lower outdoor temperatures are linked to an increase in the risk of heart attacks, according to a new study by scientists at LSHTM. For the study published in the British Medical Journal, the researchers, led by Krishnan Bhaskaran, (http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/people/bhaskaran.krishnan ) of LSHTM found that each 1°C reduction in temperature on a single day is associated with around 200 extra heart attacks. Read More

Interested in volunteering overseas but concerned not to lose out on pension contributions? If so, hurry: funding runs out for new departures after 31 March

Since 2008 a cross-Government fund to improve skills has encouraged public servants to volunteer overseas by paying their missed pension contributions on return. This is worth many thousands of pounds but departures after 1 April 2011 are excluded. Details of the scheme are online. Apply online through VSO for a quick answer whether your skills/experience match available placements, or consider applying through an International Health Link via THET . For further information please contact Michael.Stark@education.gsi.gov.uk (020 7340 7063).

LIDC News: Maasai Vets Carry Out Disease Surveillance of 86,000 Animals With Google Mobile Phones

Maasai vets in East Africa are using mobile phones to monitor diseases including anthrax and rabies as part of a partnership involving London-based academics. The Google mobile phones are helping to record how diseases are spreading in order to bolster preventative action, including vaccination campaigns. The new project in rural Kenya is led by the charity Vetaid and is backed by Google UK, which has donated 23 G1 Android devices to the surveillance effort. Data relating to more than 86,000 animals from 1,600 farms has already been logged via the mobile phones in the last month. Read More

Launch of New Book on Infectious Disease Modelling

LSHTM is pleased to announce the launch of a new book on disease modelling. An Introduction to Infectious Disease Modelling is written by Richard G White, Senior Lecturer in Infectious Disease Modelling in the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at LSHTM and a Medical Research Council Methodology Research Fellow. His co-author Emilia Vynnycky is a senior scientist in the Modelling and Economics Unit at the Health Protection Agency, Centre for Infections. Read More

Do we have your current email or postal address?

Update us with your current contact information online.