LSE Health announces 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award winners
LSE Health is proud to announce the winners of its 2026 Brian Abel-Smith and Walter Holland Lifetime Achievement Awards: four exceptional scholars whose careers have shaped health policy and public health across the world.
As LSE Health marks its 30th anniversary, and as LSE itself celebrates 130 years, we are honoured to recognise four individuals whose research and policy influence embody the values these institutions were built on: intellectual rigour in service of the public good.
The Brian Abel-Smith Lifetime Achievement Award
This award recognises exceptional contributions to health policy and social welfare, combining scholarly impact with tangible improvements to population health. This year's award goes to:
Prof Anthony Culyer
University of York
Over 50 years, Tony Culyer transformed health economics, shifting the field from traditional welfarism toward extra-welfarism. He co-founded the Journal of Health Economics, wrote the influential 'Culyer Report' (1994) paving the way for NIHR, and served as founding Vice Chair of NICE. In Canada, he served as Ontario's first Chief Scientist at the Institute for Work and Health. His work shaped health priority-setting in the UK and internationally.
Prof Robert Evans
University of British Columbia
Robert G. Evans is one of the most influential health economists ever. A founding member of UBC's Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, his work shaped how we understand health care financing and the broader determinants of population health. His books Strained Mercy and Why Are Some People Healthy and Others Not? are landmarks in the field. An Officer of the Order of Canada, his studies have informed policy debates internationally.
The Walter Holland Lifetime Achievement Award
This award honours those who have made outstanding contributions to public health research and demonstrated real-world impact on population health and health policy at global, regional, or local levels. This year's award goes to:
Prof Lisa Berkman
Harvard University
Lisa Berkman is the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Epidemiology at Harvard University. She is a pioneering social epidemiologist whose work has fundamentally shaped our understanding of how socioeconomic status, social networks, and isolation affect health outcomes. Her landmark research on social ties and mortality helped establish social epidemiology as a field. She leads HAALSI, a major study on ageing and disease in South Africa, and her research on health inequalities and ageing has influenced policy internationally. She is a past president of the Population Association of America, of the Society of Epidemiologic Research and of the Association of Population Centers.
Prof Martin McKee
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
Martin McKee is one of the most influential public health scholars globally. As Professor at LSHTM, he co-founded ECOHOST and has served as Research Director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. His research has shaped understanding of health transitions in post-communist Europe, the role of alcohol in the mortality crisis in the former Soviet Union, tobacco control, and the commercial determinants of health. His work on austerity and health has been particularly influential in policy debates across Europe. He is a member of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the US National Academy of Medicine.
Professor Elias Mossialos, Director of LSE Health, said:
"Brian Abel-Smith and Walter Holland left an extraordinary mark on health policy, health economics, and public health. These awards exist to honour their legacy by recognising scholars whose work has had a significant impact on how we understand and improve health systems and population health.
The response to our first call for nominations was remarkable. We were struck not only by the number of nominations but by the exceptional quality of candidates put forward from around the world. It made for a very difficult selection, and it confirmed that these fields continue to attract outstanding minds doing work of real consequence. We are proud to honour four truly distinguished scholars, and we look forward to building this tradition in the years ahead.”
Each award carries a £5,000 prize. Winners will also be invited to deliver a lecture at LSE, with details to be announced in due course. Both awards are presented biennially by LSE Health, and are named in honour of two of the most influential figures in the history of health policy and public health research. Brian Abel-Smith was a pioneer of comparative social policy whose work shaped health systems across Europe and beyond. Walter Holland was a founding father of British public health research, whose evidence-based approach transformed how governments approach population health. You can learn more about LSE Health's 30th anniversary here.