25 Facts About Chris Whitty

Chris Whitty was the Acting Government Chief Scientific Adviser from 2017 to 2018.

From March 2020, Chris Whitty played a key role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, alongside Government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.

Chris Whitty was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to public health.

Chris Whitty was born in Gloucester on 21 April 1966, the first of four sons born to Kenneth and Susannah Chris Whitty.

Chris Whitty's father was a British Council officer, who was posted to various countries including Nigeria, where the family lived in Kaduna, and Malawi.

Chris Whitty's maternal uncle Sir Christopher MacRae was a diplomat, and his grandmother Grace Summerhayes was a pioneering obstetrician in Africa, who helped set up the first maternity hospital in Ghana in 1928.

Chris Whitty was sent back to the UK for his schooling, where he attended Windlesham House School in Pulborough, West Sussex, and Malvern College, Worcestershire.

Chris Whitty is a practising National Health Service consultant physician at University College London Hospitals and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, and was Gresham Professor of Physic at Gresham College, a post dating back to 1597.

Chris Whitty worked as a physician and researcher into preventing or treating infectious diseases in the UK, Africa and Asia, especially malaria and other parasitic diseases but other infections of resource-poor settings.

At the time, Chris Whitty was the principal investigator for the ACT Consortium, which conducted the research programme.

From 2009 to 2015, Chris Whitty was Chief Scientific Adviser and director of research for the Department for International Development.

Chris Whitty led the Research and Evidence Division, which worked on health, agriculture, climate change, energy, infrastructure, economic and governance research.

From January 2016 to August 2021, Chris Whitty was Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care, responsible for the department's research and development work, including being Head of the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

From 2017 to 2018, Chris Whitty was interim Government Chief Scientific Adviser and head of the science and engineering profession in government.

Chris Whitty was appointed Chief Medical Officer for England in 2019.

From 19 March 2020, Chris Whitty appeared in public information adverts on national television, explaining the government's social-distancing strategy to reduce the spread of the virus during the pandemic.

Chris Whitty had previously apologised for any "upset" caused and had lost his job as an estate agent over the incident.

Chris Whitty was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 2015 New Year Honours for public and voluntary service to Tropical Medicine in the UK and Africa.

Chris Whitty is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Chris Whitty gave the 2014 Milroy Lecture at the Royal College of Physicians, and the 2017 Harveian Oration at the same institution.

In September 2021, Chris Whitty was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Plymouth in recognition of his support for the university's medical science research community.

Chris Whitty holds an honorary degree from the University of York.

Chris Whitty was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to public health.

Chris Whitty was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2023.

Chris Whitty was appointed Honorary Colonel 144 Medical Squadron Army Reserve on 1 December 2024.