Dr. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta is the Distinguished University Professor and Founding Director of the Institute for Global Health and Development and the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, at the Aga Khan University. He also holds the Robert Harding Inaugural Chair in Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health, unique joint appointments. He is also the Lawson Centre Distinguished Fellow in Climate Change, Food Systems and Child and Adolescent Nutrition at the University of Toronto and holds adjunct professorships at several leading Universities globally including the Schools of Public Health at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore), George Washington University (DC), Boston University School of Public Health, Karolinksa Institute (Sweden) as well as the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.  He is a designated Distinguished National Professor of the Government of Pakistan and was a member of the Independent Expert Review Group (iERG) appointed by the UN Secretary General for monitoring global progress in maternal and child health MDGs (2011-2015). He represented the global academic and research organizations on the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (Gavi) Board and serves on the Global Vaccine Equity Reference Group (ERG). Dr. Bhutta has served as the co-Chair of Knowledge and Science committee of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and a member of the Independent Expert Group producing the Global Nutrition Reports since its inception in 2014 to 2021. Dr Bhutta was a member of the WHO Strategic Advisory Committee for Vaccines (SAGE) from 2010-15 and the Advisory Committee for Health Research of the WHO EMRO. Dr Bhutta was a member of the Health Task Force for the Prime Minister of Pakistan (2018-2022), the Chair of the Board of Governors of the National Institutes of Health, Pakistan (2021-2024) and the Health & Population Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Health, Government of Pakistan. 

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. 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. As a former President of the International Pediatric Association (IPA), he has been a leading voice for health professionals supporting integrated maternal, newborn and child health globally.  

He has published 11 books, 150 book chapters, and over 1400 indexed publications to date, including > 250 in the world’s leading journal Lancet alone. He is one of the most highly cited academics in global health (H index 229, i10 index 1153, >375,000 citations) and has been ranked among the top 1% of Highly Cited Researchers globally by the Web of Science consecutively since 2013. He has received several awards over the years, including election to the National Academy of Medicine USA and the Royal Society of London as well the International Science Council. He was awarded the Roux Prize 2021 for his work on evidence-based public health impact and is the recipient of the 2022 John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health award. He was also awarded the Suskind Lifetime Achievement Award in International Nutrition by the American Society for Nutrition in 2022 as well as the prestigious 2023 Henry Friesen prize for International Health. In 2023 Dr Bhutta was also awarded one of Pakistan’s highest civil awards, the Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 2023 and appointed as an officer of the Order of Canada in 2024. 

 Dr. Bhutta’s research interests include newborn and child survival, maternal and child undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, especially covering the first thousand days. He leads large research groups based in Canada, Pakistan & Central Asia with a special interest in research synthesis, scaling up evidence-based interventions in community settings and implementation research in fragile health systems. His work with community health workers and outreach services has influenced integrated maternal and newborn outreach programs for marginalized populations all over the world. His group’s work with the WHO and PMNCH in developing consensus based essential interventions for women, children and adolescents is the dominant set of agreed interventions guiding global policy. Presently Professor Bhutta is leading three global academic consortia; one working on integrated investments to improve child and adolescent health and nutrition across the sustainable development goals, an academic working group on addressing women and children’s health in humanitarian and conflict settings and a multi-disciplinary work to help find strategies to address the challenges of climate change and health for women and children in populations at-risk in South Asia & East Africa.