Author: Oyinlola Oyebode

Full Blog:

Name: Oyinlola Oyebode

Position: Professor of Public Health

University: Queen Mary University of London

SSM member since: 2021 (conference attendee since 2012)

SSM committee roles: Co-chair of the SSMPH Annual Conference Local Organising Committee (2026)

Research topics of interest: Food, Health Inequalities, Global Health



How did your career in social medicine/population health begin?

After doing a neuroscience PhD in a lab, I realised that I loved working with data and was happy to be doing something that might one day improve health. However, I did not enjoy the process of getting data (pipetting, sitting in a dark room looking down a microscope, cleaning cell culture labs, etc). Towards the end of my PhD, I discussed this with someone who told me they thought public health would suit me and that the public health specialty training scheme was newly open to applicants who were not medically trained. When I read more about it, I realised I’d probably always been interested in public health (my A-level statistics project was on the epidemiology of suicide, during my PhD I volunteered at the Royal Edinburgh Sick Kids, chopping up fruit and taking it round the wards). So, after my PhD, I worked for two years in the NHS gaining experience, and then joined the specialty training scheme in London in 2010. 

What is your research area and what excites you most about it?

I’ve got two streams to my research: Firstly, I’ve completed a range of studies on food, diet and healthy weight. I’m currently leading an MRC funded project on salt consumption in Sierra Leone and collaborating on projects on school food and maternal anaemia. More recently, I’ve started working on environmentally sustainable and healthy diets. I had a PhD student examining the nutritional adequacy and environmental impact of vegan and vegetarian diets for children aged 2-12, and a previous student examining attitudes to sustainable diets in emerging adults in Ghana. I’m part of two large consortia, Salient: looking at policy interventions that could promote environmentally sustainable diets; and THRIVING: examining the health co-benefits of net zero policies in the food system. I’m excited to have joined a World Health Organisation Technical Advisory Group to support development of guidelines on optimal animal-source food intake. My second research stream focuses on the health of marginalised populations. At the moment, this is mainly the health of migrant populations, or socio-economically disadvantaged groups in the UK, although previously I’ve worked more globally.

How has SSM influenced your career journey and what have you got out of being an SSM member?

I’ve benefitted from meeting lots of people with overlapping research interests and hearing about new and interesting studies at the annual conferences.

What advice would you give to someone just starting their career in social medicine/population health?

Try to protect some time to think and write. Seek out opportunities to talk to people with different perspectives (e.g. from other disciplines, or working in practice/policy/industry/third sector).

What have you gained most from the SSM Mentoring Scheme, either as a mentor or mentee?

Although I had attended the conference for years, I mainly joined the society for the chance to get a mentor. The first conversation I had with my mentor prompted me to apply for the job I have now at QMUL which was a really good move, so I am very happy with that!

Tell us a (fun) fact about yourself that is unrelated to your career.

I’m quite good at pulling faces - I can wiggle either eyebrow independently.