London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

I am very sorry to bring the sad news that Mateusz Zatonski, who completed his PhD with us in 2019, has died after a short illness.

Mateusz was a brilliant young Polish historian who followed his father, an eminent Polish cancer epidemiologist and long term collaborator with some of us, into the area of health. His PhD, which I co-supervised with Martin Gorsky, was on the history of tobacco control in Poland and he won the Roy Porter prize from the Society for Social History of Medicine. He continued to work with us and we published a paper on COVID in Poland only a few months ago.

Mateusz’s premature death has been a huge loss for tobacco control and for public health more generally. We extend our deepest sympathy to his family and many friends.

Written by Professor Martin McKee CBE MD DSc FMedSci
Professor of European Public Health
Past President, European Public Health Association
President Elect, British Medical Association
Research Director European Observatory on Health Systems & Policies