Professor Mark Hanson is Director of the Institute of Developmental Sciences and BHF Professor at the University of Southampton, UK.

He was a founder and President of the International Society for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease and holds Honorary Fellowships of the RCOG and RCPCH in the UK.

He co-Chairs the FIGO Pregnancy and NCDs Committee and the Pregnancy Obesity and Nutrition Initiative.

He co-Chaired the working group on Science and Evidence for the World Health Organisation Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity.

He currently chairs the Knowledge and Evidence Working Group of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (hosted by WHO).

He is one of the founders of The Venice Forum, which aims to make the case for investing in maternal, newborn and child health for sustainable recovery from Covid-19.

His research concerns how the developmental environment affects health across the life-course, from mechanisms to interventions, in both high and low-middle income countries and with a particular focus on the pre-and inter-conception periods.

He has worked at the interface between developmental science, evolutionary biology, the social sciences and the humanities.

Mark pioneered LifeLab to promote health literacy in school students.

He has authored over 400 original papers and 11 academic and popular books and is actively engaged in wider advocacy for increasing knowledge and awareness of developmental science and its applications to global health, clinical medicine and public health policy.