Researcher profile

Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh

Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh OBE is Nuffield Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences, Head of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences and Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Oxford. He is Professorial Fellow at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant with the UK Health Security Agency and Public Health Scotland. Aziz was previously Chair of Primary Care Research and Development, Director of the Usher Institute and Dean of Data at the University of Edinburgh. He has played important advisory roles to a number of governments, inter-governmental bodies, including the World Bank, World Health Organization and the World Innovation Summit for Health, and leading scientific bodies including the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society. Aziz has worked for over 20 years on digitising health systems, securely linking health and cross-sectoral data and then using these data to inform and influence health policy, improve the safety and quality of care, and develop personalised risk assessments. This work recently culminated in the world’s first 67M person study in which the entire UK population was turned into a linked, near real-time longitudinal cohort. He has, together with colleagues from across the world, had grants in excess of £200M, is a highly cited author, is a fellow of 10 learned societies and he has been awarded numerous UK and international awards for his work. Aziz was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for ‘Services to Medicine and Health Care’ in 2014 and a Knight Bachelor in 2022 for ‘Services to COVID-19 Research and Policy’.