Stuart Blume (1960)

Part-way through my chemistry DPhil I decided I wanted to work in science and technology policy. So, whilst writing my thesis, I began my retraining. After a fellowship at the University of Sussex, I moved for a time to Paris, and then returned, to Whitehall. My experience as Secretary of a committee on social inequalities in health led me to a question which has preoccupied me for years: why do advances in medicine exacerbate, rather than reduce, inequality? I left Whitehall, moved to LSE, and then took this question with me when invited to Amsterdam, first as visiting professor and then as full professor. 

Most of my academic work has derived from this question. Why do we get the innovations in medical technology which we do get, and not others? I've written 4 books on various aspects of this, most recently on vaccination history and politics; a topic on which I collaborate with scholars around the world. I also write a blog for Psychology Today, dealing with the kinds of things that people expect of medicine, or that bother them about it. And finally, but for me of the greatest importance, I'm writing a book about 'searching for one's roots'. A psychiatrist friend warned me that this could be challenging. She was right!