Prof. Marcel Tanner

Prof. Marcel Tanner is the former Director of the Swiss Tropical & Public Health formerly Swiss Tropical Institute (STI) and Professor, Chair of Epidemiology and MediUniversity cal Parasitology of the University of Basel. Prof Tanner holds honorary Professorships at the Faculty of Medicine, of Queensland, the Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne and an Associate Professor of University of Basel. Prof. Tanner is the Dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Basel and a member of the Swiss Academy of Science.

Over the last 34 years Prof. Tanner has published over 500 original papers in peer-reviewed journals, and has contributed to 19 book chapters and co-editor of two books on urban health and urbanization. He has also published 400 short communications and abstracts as well as numerous evaluation reports and studies for governments and international agencies.  Prof. Tanner prior to joining the Swiss TPH, from 1981-1984 headed the Swiss Tropical Institute Field Laboratory in Ifakara, Tanzania where he managed the epidemiological research projects on malaria and schistosomiasis and community-based studies on the interactions between infection-nutrition-immunity implementation of a primary health care programme at the district level. From 1988-1995 he also got the opportunity to head the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at STI researching in the field of the control of communicable diseases, mainly malaria and schistosomiasis based on extended fieldwork in Africa and Asia.

He has also researched on health planning emphasising urbanisation, health service utilisation and decentralisation in health planning and resources allocation. He carried other researches on urban environment and health in Africa (Tanzania, Chad, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Mauritania) and Asia (China, India). He’s worked on health development projects at the district level in rural and urban areas of Africa (Tanzania, Chad, Cameroon) and Asia (India, Thailand). Prof. Tanner has had several teaching appointments teaching and training students at universities in the field of epidemiology and public health in Europe, USA, Africa, Australia and Asia. He’s also consulted in international health issues for governments and international organisations (WHO, World Bank).

Prof. Tanner is currently serving as Chair of the following organisations-INDEPTH Network, DNDI, INCLEN, IHI and Co-Chair of Swiss School of Public Health and CSRS.