Anthony (Tony) McMichael

Anthony (Tony) McMichael died 26 September 2014 in Canberra, Australia, at the age of 71. McMichael graduated in medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1967 and earned a PhD from Monash University in 1972, where he was the first doctoral student in epidemiology. He recognized and coined the term “healthy-worker effect” while doing postdoctoral research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After returning to Australia, he worked in the field of nutrition and health with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) before being recruited as the Foundation Chair in Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Adelaide. He was a professor of epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine from 1994 to 2001 and directed the Australia National University National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health from 2001 to 2006. McMichael held a National Health and Medical Research Council Australia Fellowship, Australia’s most prestigious award for excellence in the fields of health and medical research. In 2011, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia and was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. At his death, he held honorary positions at the University of Copenhagen and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and he was a long-standing advisor to the World Health Organization. He also was a Fellow at Chatham House on Global Health Security and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences.