RIBOLI Elio

Professor of Hygiene and Public Health, Humanitas University, Rozzano, Milan, ITALY.

• Professor Elio Riboli’s career started at the Department of Epidemiology of the National Institute of Cancer, Milan (1978-1983).
• In 1983 he was appointed Medical Officer in Epidemiology at the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organisation-United Nations (IARC-WHO) based in Lyon, France.  While at IARC in the mid 1980’s, he engaged a novel area of research focusing on the role of diet, nutrition and endogenous hormones in cancer aetiology.
• In 1990 this materialised into the initiation of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), and its subsequent funding by the “Europe Against Cancer” programme of the European Commission. Professor Riboli has since been the European Coordinator and Principal Investigator of EPIC.
• In 2006, he moved from IARC to Imperial College London where he was initially appointed Professor and Chair in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention and one year later Head of the Division of Epidemiology, Public Health and Primary Care. He subsequently led the establishment of the Imperial College School of Public Health, of which he was Director from 2010 to 2017.
• His research is focused on the identification of the role of nutritional, metabolic and behavioral risk factors in the causation of cancer. He has contributed to the identification of the role of insulin resistance as one of the underlying metabolic mechanisms involved in the development of the cancers of the colorectum, breast and endometrium. He has led research on the role of abdominal obesity in cancer and in premature adult mortality.
• While retaining his primary academic appointment at Imperial College London. He holds a professorial appointment at the School of Medicine of Humanitas University, Milan, is Visiting Professor at Lee Kong Chang School of Medicine of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Adjunct Professor at the New York University Medical School, New York