Professor Philip Hill
Professor Philip Hill holds separate qualifications as a medical practitioner (MBChB), specialist public health physician (MPH; FAFPHM; FNZCPHM), specialist infectious diseases physician (FRACP), as well as a doctorate in the epidemiology of tuberculosis in The Gambia (MD). After completing specialty training in New Zealand, he spent 6 years working as a clinical epidemiologist at the Medical Research Council (UK) research unit in The Gambia, working on tuberculosis (TB) and pneumonia projects.
Professor Hill is the first holder of the McAuley Chair in International Health and is Founding Director and Co-Director of the Centre for International Health at the University of Otago. He is involved in research projects in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and the Pacific. His major collaboration is in TB research with the TB-HIV research centre of the University of Padjadjaran, Bandung, Indonesia. This collaboration is focusing on moving from observational studies to intervention trials, with two new intervention trials commencing in 2019/20.
Professor Hill has published over 200 articles in peer reviewed journals. His research interests include studies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and disease, Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage, disease and vaccination. Professor Hill has been a Lead or Co-Investigator on grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MRC (UK), European Commission, DFID (UK), The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, The European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, the New Zealand Health Research Council, the Marsden Fund (Royal Society of New Zealand), NHMRC (Australia) and the Global Fund.
In 2008 Professor Hill established the Otago International Health Research Network of over 100 researchers across all four divisions of the University, with an interest in health research in low-and middle-income countries. This Network has been renamed the Otago Global Health Institute and is now one of 12 flagship research centres of the University. He is currently Co-Director of the Institute.