Zulfiqar A. Bhutta

Chair - Professor and the Founding Director, Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health, Aga Khan University, South-Central Asia & East Africa and Director Research, Centre for Global Child Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada

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He also holds adjunct professorships at several leading Universities globally including the Schools of Public Health at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore), Harvard School of Public Health, Tufts University (Boston), University of Alberta as well as the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.  He is a designated Distinguished National Professor of the Government of Pakistan and also the Chairman of the National Research Ethics Committee of the Government of Pakistan.

Dr Bhutta is one of the seven member Independent Expert Review Group (iERG) set by the UN Secretary General in September 2011 for monitoring global progress in maternal and child health MDGs. He has recently been appointed to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) Board as the representative from global academic research organizations.

Professor Bhutta was educated at the University of Peshawar (MBBS) and obtained his PhD from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh & London), the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (London), American Academy of Pediatrics and the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. He has been associated with the Aga Khan University since 1986 and heads a large research team working on issues of maternal, newborn and child survival and nutrition globally and regionally.

Dr Bhutta has served as a member of the Global Advisory Committee for Health Research for the World Health Organization, the Board of Child & Health and Nutrition Initiative of Global Forum for Health Research, and the steering committees of the International Zinc and Vitamin A Nutrition Consultative Groups. He is an executive committee member of the International Paediatric Association and was a founding Board member of the Global Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH). He serves on the governing council for the World Alliance for Patient Safety Research and is a Board member of the International Center for Diarrheal Diseases Research. Dr Bhutta is currently a member of the WHO Strategic Advisory Committee for Vaccines (SAGE), the Expert Advisory Group for Vaccine Research, the Advisory Committee for Health Research of WHO EMRO, and a co-chair of its apex Regional Committee for Maternal and Child Health. He is the past-President of the Commonwealth Association of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (CAPGAN) and the Federation of Asia-Oceania Perinatal Societies (FAOPS) and a leading voice for integrated maternal, newborn and child health globally. 

Dr Bhutta’s research interests include newborn and child survival, maternal and child undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. He leads a large research group based in Pakistan with a special interest in research synthesis, scaling up evidence based interventions in community settings and implementation research in health systems research. In particular, his work with community health workers and outreach services has influenced integrated maternal and newborn outreach programs globally.

Achievements

He has won several awards, including the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz (Medal of Excellence) by the President of Pakistan for contributions towards education and research (2000), the President of Pakistan Gold Medal for contributions to Child Health in Pakistan (2004) and the Outstanding Pediatrician of Asia award by the Asia Pacific Pediatric Association (2006). He is the first recipient of the Aga Khan University Distinguished Faculty Award for Research (2005) and Award of Distinction (2012). Dr Bhutta was awarded the inaugural Programme for Global Pediatric Research Award for Outstanding Contributions to Global Child Health (2009) and the Kenneth Warren prize for the best systematic review of community based interventions by the Cochrane collaboration in 2011. Dr Bhutta was awarded the Global Advocacy Prize by the Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health in 2012.

Publications

• Lancet series on Child Survival (2003)
• Lancet series on Newborn Survival (2005)
• Lancet series on Undernutrition (2008)
• Lancet series on Primary Care (2008)
• Lancet series on Stillbirths (2011) 
• Lancet series on maternal and child undernutrition (2013)
• Lancet series on Childhood Diarrhea and Pneumonia (2013)