Gerry Stimson is public health sociologist and Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London. He has nearly 40 years experience of research on drug and alcohol issues and is one of the UK’s pre-eminent social scientists in this field. In 1990 he founded The Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour and remained its Director until 2004. He built this up into one of the leading internationally recognised groups conducting research on reducing harms from drug and alcohol use. The programme of work has included the evaluation of methadone and heroin prescribing, the evaluation of needle exchange, surveillance of HIV and other blood borne infection among people who inject drugs, drugs in prisons, prevalence of drug use, the development of drug use monitoring systems, and fieldwork studies of drug use in the community. His research expertise includes treatment evaluation, needs assessment, epidemiology, qualitative research, policy analysis and global and country multi-site studies. He established the academic Department of Social Science and Medicine at Imperial College and was its head from 1997 to 2003. He has published widely on drug issues, with over 200 publications in academic journals and books. He advises the UK government, the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, on issues related to drugs, and on HIV infection and AIDS. He is editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Drug Policy.
Gerry Stimson is public health sociologist and Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London. He has nearly 40 years experience of research on drug and alcohol issues and is one of the UK’s pre-eminent social scientists in this field. In 1990 he founded The Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour and remained its Director until 2004. He built this up into one of the leading internationally recognised groups conducting research on reducing harms from drug and alcohol use. The programme of work has included the evaluation of methadone and heroin prescribing, the evaluation of needle exchange, surveillance of HIV and other blood borne infection among people who inject drugs, drugs in prisons, prevalence of drug use, the development of drug use monitoring systems, and fieldwork studies of drug use in the community. His research expertise includes treatment evaluation, needs assessment, epidemiology, qualitative research, policy analysis and global and country multi-site studies. He established the academic Department of Social Science and Medicine at Imperial College and was its head from 1997 to 2003. He has published widely on drug issues, with over 200 publications in academic journals and books. He advises the UK government, the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, on issues related to drugs, and on HIV infection and AIDS. He is editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Drug Policy.