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Professor Manu Mathur

Manu

Professor of Dental Public Health and Primary Care

Email: m.r.mathur@qmul.ac.uk
Room Number: Office 5, 5th Floor, Institute of Dentistry, Turner Street, Whitechapel, London E1 2AD

Profile

I am a public health specialist with almost two decades of global experience working in different health systems. I got my undergraduate degree in dentistry, after which I did my Masters in Public Health (Distinction) from the University of Glasgow. After completing my Master’s, I begin my professional journey at one of the most reputed public health organisations in India and then subsequently received a scholarship from Wellcome Trust to fund my doctoral studies at University College London. I started my career as a research fellow at Public Health Foundation of India. At an early stage, I was given the opportunity to write, bid, and work as Co-PI and thematic lead for various competitive grants. I have worked on more than fifteen research projects so far funded by Government of India, WHO, BMGF, USAID, and NIH. Of particular importance was a large-scale project funded by BMGF where we developed youth engaging, health system strengthening and community empowering interventions to reduce tobacco consumption in two high burden states of India. I was one of the Co-PIs on the project. A major impact of this national project was the banning of gutkha (a form of smokeless tobacco) by many states in India. One of my first author papers from this study is used as a reference material for designing effective tobacco control intervention among adolescents. I have led two major studies as PI looking at socio-economic determinants of oral health in adolescents living in slum areas and how behaviours cluster and impact oral health in vulnerable adolescents (both funded by the Wellcome Trust). I am one of the few researchers who has produced national-level evidence and published on inequalities in oral health from the Indian subcontinent. I have been awarded a large trial support grant from Medical Research Council (MRC), UK on assessing the impact of banning Sugar and Sweetened Beverages in schools in India. The advocacy materials generated from this study have led to the prohibition of sale of aerated beverages in private schools in New Delhi. I was also a Co-PI of a study which helped in developing an indicator framework for 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Throughout my career, I have been actively involved in collaborating with a range of stakeholders including national governments, academia, civil society, global foundations and the private sector. I have active research collaborations through funded projects in many countries of South Asia, Africa, Australia, and USA. Most of my publications are with co-authors from different organisations and countries.  I hold four key positions which facilitate strategic leadership of the research discipline of dental public health at various scales. I am a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Global Oral Health, and Immediate Past President of the Global Oral Health Inequalities Research Network of International Association for Dental Research. I chair the International Dental Federation’s Whole Mouth Health project which is an international study on integrating oral health with general health. I head the Centre for Dental Public Health and Primary Care at QMUL. I have more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in leading international journals.

I am also the Regional Dental Research Lead for NHS England with a mandate to strengthen research capacity of academic trainees and fellows in primary care ultimately leading to potential patient benefit.

I have recently been recognised in the top two per cent of impact-making researchers worldwide in Medicine and Public Health.

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