Simon Szreter is Professor of History and Public Policy at Cambridge University, a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge and the co-founder and editor of www.historyandpolicy.org. His many publications and media contributions span modern and early modern British economic, social and public health history, drawing from history to offer insights for contemporary policy. He has also authored numerous articles in historical journals and edited special issues of Social History of Medicine and the Journal of Interdisciplinary History. He has published on policy issues in World Development, Journal of Development Studies, Population and Development Review, International Journal of Epidemiology, America Journal of Public Health and The Lancet. He was co-founder of History&Policy in 2002 and continues to be its managing editor, with over 200 Policy Papers now published on www.historyandpolicy.org. Simon was awarded the Arthur Viseltear Prize in 2009 by the American Public Health Association in recognition of his distinguished body of scholarship in the history of public health. Photo: Graham CopeKoga