Posted by: Andrew Lavelle; 28 March 2016; 6:33 pm
Professor Virginia Murray was appointed as Consultant in Global Disaster Risk Reduction for Public Health England in April 2014. This appointment is to take forward her work as Vice-Chair of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Scientific and Technical Advisory Group. She is also a member of the International Council of Science Unions’ Scientific Committee for the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk programme and is also the co-chair of the IRDR’s Disaster Loss Data (DATA) project. Prior to this, she was Head of Extreme Events and Health Protection, Public Health England where she developed evidence-based information and advice on flooding, heat, cold, volcanic ash, and other extreme weather and natural hazards events. Previously, she provided evidence-based preparedness, response, and recovery advice on acute and chronic air, water, land, and product-related chemical incidents.
Appointed as Visiting Professor in Health Protection, MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College and King’s College, London (2004) and Honorary Professor at University College London (2013), she has published widely. In 2015, she was honored by being given the WADEM Award for Global Leadership in Emergency Public Health.