Personal profile

Research Interests

Harry Campbell has a number of research interests:

 

Long standing experience in many aspects of global child health with a particular long-term interest in many aspects of childhood respiratory infections. Recent and current projects have explored global burden of disease, disease surveillance, use of linked routine heath datasets, risk factors and case management guidelines. He was a founding member then deputy chair of the WHO / UNICEF Child Health Epidemiology Group [CHERG] for about 20 years. He has served as an advisor to WHO and other UN agencies on ~100 occasions and is currently active in 2 WHO advisory groups. Two major grants include EU IMI programmes (led by the University of Edinburgh) focusing on RSV disease in children and adults [completed in 2025]; and an NIHR Global Health Unit on Respiratory Health (where his role is joint-Director 2017-2026 ). RESPIRE was one of 5 UK research programmes which won an inaugural NIHR Impact Prize in 2025.

Professor Campbell has helped instigate and has contributed to the development of the research theme of metabolic psychiatry in Edinburgh and internationally together with Dr Iain Campbell, Prof Danny Smith and other colleagues. He was PI on a pilot study of a ketogenic diet intervention [supported by the Baszucki Brain Research Foundation] and is an investigator on the MRC Mental Health Research Hub on Metabolic Psychiatry [led by Prof Danny Smith 2024-2028] and a Wellcome funded [£7M] trial of the ketogenic diet for bipolar depression [led by Prof Rebecca Reynolds; 2025-2030]. He supervises a Baszucki Research Fellow in Metabolic Psychiatry jointly with Prof Danny Smith.

Professor Campbell has had a long term interest in colorectal cancer genetics and epidemiology. He has held a CRUK Programme grant continuously from 2003 – 2020 with Malcolm Dunlop, Susan Farrington and Evi Theodoratou and has published ~100 original articles on this topic.

 

Professor Campbell has established population-based studies and biobanks in several genetic isolate populations in work supported by MRC through Programme Grants (QTL in Health and Disease) from 2000 – 2017 with Alan Wright, Igor Rudan, Nick Hastie, Chris Haley, Jim Wilson, Caroline Hayward and Vernoique Vitart (Programme Grant value ~£6 million over most recent 5 year period). This programme was led from 2018-2024 by Professors Jim Wilson, Chris Haley and Caroline Hayward. He has taken part in many GWAS consortia. He led an EU funded European research consortium of cohort studies in genetic isolate populations [EUROSPAN] which then participated in many international GWAS consortia. He has published ~300 original articles in this research field.

 

He is an author on >700 original articles in medical journals and has been listed on www.highlycited.com under both genetics and social sciences since 2014 [~190k citations; h index ~190].

Qualifications

BMedSci Hons (1st; Pharmacology; Edinburgh)

MBChB (Edinburgh); MD (Edinburgh)

MSc (distinction; LSHTM)

MRCP / FRCP; MFPH / FFPH; FRSE, FMedSci

Biography

Current roles

Joint-Director, NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Respiratory Health [2017 - 2026]

Joint-Editor in Chief, Journal of Global Health [2011 - ]

Joint-Director, WHO Collaborating Centre Population Health Research & Training [2013-]

 

Previous roles

Deputy Director, Usher Institute [2016-2021]

Joint-Director, Centre for Global Health Research [2015-2021]

UK training posts in paediatrics and infectious diseases

Experience working in Africa (MRC Gambia), Asia and the Pacific (Solomon Islands)

Medical officer / deputy programme manager [CDR – child health]; WHO Geneva

NHS Consultant in Public Health

Undergraduate teaching

Professor Campbell has acted as a personal tutor [now professional mentor] to 10 students. He has supervised 1-4 BMedSci (Hons) students and MPH students each year.

 

Postgraduate teaching

Professor Campbell runs an MPH course on global health epidemiology, teaches on 2 other MPH courses and supervises 1-2 MPH student dissertations per year. He has acted as the chair of the MPH Board of Examiners meetings until 2020. Professor Campbell has acted as external examiner at Imperial College London and  the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the past decade.

 

Postgraduate Research

Professor Campbell supervises 1 PhD student currently. He acts as informal mentor to several staff. He was co-lead of the Usher Network for COVID Evidence Reviews [UNCOVER] which fosters staff-student collaborations and training in evidence synthesis until 2023.

 

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics where Harry Campbell is active. These topic labels come from the works of this person. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
  • 1 Similar Profiles

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or
  • NIHR Impact Prize

    Balharry, D. (Recipient), Edwards, M. (Recipient), Gallagher, L. (Recipient), Nathan, K. (Recipient), Flynn, K. (Recipient), Lim, A. K. (Recipient), Lin, C. (Recipient), Fernandes, G. (Recipient), Sha, R. (Recipient), Gonzalez Rienda, L. (Recipient), Muhamad, H. (Recipient), Mohanty, T. K. (Recipient), Evans, J. (Recipient), Evans, L. (Recipient), Arifeen, S. (Recipient), Baqui, A. (Recipient), Habib, G. M. M. (Recipient), Huque, R. (Recipient), Khan, F. (Recipient), Saha, S. (Recipient), Soofi, S. (Recipient), Mynak, M. L. (Recipient), Agarwal, D. (Recipient), Bhattacharjee, T. (Recipient), Jukevar, S. (Recipient), Paul, B. (Recipient), Salvi, S. (Recipient), Satav, A. (Recipient), Singh, S. N. (Recipient), Kartasasmita, C. (Recipient), Triasih, R. (Recipient), Hanafi, N. S. (Recipient), Toh, T. H. (Recipient), Lee, W. K. (Recipient), Khoo, E. M. (Recipient), Cheong, A. T. (Recipient), Ahmed, Z. (Recipient), Bhutta, Z. (Recipient), Khan, A. (Recipient), Mahmood, H. (Recipient), Yusuf, O. (Recipient), Harischandra, N. (Recipient), Madegedara, D. (Recipient), Wimalasekera, S. (Recipient), Yasaratne, D. (Recipient), Campbell, H. (Recipient), Carruthers, D. (Recipient), Carson, G. (Recipient), Cunningham, S. (Recipient), Cunningham-Burley, S. (Recipient), Shah, A. (Recipient), Grant, L. (Recipient), McQuillan, R. (Recipient), Nair, H. (Recipient), Weir, C. (Recipient), Pinnock, H. (Recipient), Rudan, I. (Recipient), Schwarze, J. (Recipient), Sheikh, A. (Recipient), Siddiqi, K. (Recipient), Stagg, H. (Recipient), Weller, D. (Recipient), Williams, S. (Recipient) & Jackson, T. (Recipient), 20 Mar 2025

    Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)