Professor Charlotte Watts is Executive Director of Solutions at Wellcome, a global charitable foundation supporting science to solve urgent health issues. She oversees three transformative programmes, Climate and Health, Mental Health and Infectious Disease.
Professor Watts has previously served as Chief Scientific Adviser and Director for Research and Evidence at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The most senior scientist in FCDO, Professor Watts held responsibility for providing scientific advice to the Foreign Secretary, Ministers, the Permanent Under-Secretary and Executive Committee, including during the COVID-19 pandemic and other emergencies. Between 2015 and 2020 she was Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for International Development (DFID).
In her academic career, most recently as Professor of Social and Mathematical Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Professor Watts has made important contributions in infectious disease epidemiology, HIV prevention, and violence research, including showing that domestic violence is preventable.
Professor Watts was elected an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College in 2023.
