London School of Tropical Medicine

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Type	Public
Established	1899 – London School of Tropical Medicine 1924 – London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine established by Royal Charter
Chancellor	HRH The Princess Royal (University of London)
Director	Baron Piot
Administrative staff	766 (full-time equivalent)
Students	1,210 (2015/16)
Location	Bloomsbury, London, United Kingdom
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	University of London
Website	www.lshtm.ac.uk

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (informally the LSHTM) is a public research university on Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, Camden, London, and specialised in public health and tropical medicine and a constituent college of the University of London. It was founded by Sir Patrick Manson in 1899 and is one of the most prestigious institutions in the world in the fields of public health and infectious diseases, ranking highly in both national and international league tables.

The LSHTM's mission is to contribute to the improvement of health worldwide through the pursuit of excellence in research, postgraduate teaching and advanced training in national and international public health and tropical medicine, and through informing policy and practice in these areas. It had a total income of £101.7 million in 2009/10, of which £62.5 million was from research grants and contracts.

The school was founded in 1899 by Sir Patrick Manson as the London School of Tropical Medicine after the Parsi philanthropist Bomanjee Dinshaw Petit donated £6,666. It was initially located at the Albert Dock Seamen's Hospital in the London Docklands. Just prior to this teaching in tropical medicine had been commenced in 1899 at the Extramural school at Edinburgh and even earlier at London's Livingstone College founded in 1893 by Charles F. Harford-Battersby (1865–1925). Before giving lectures at St George's Hospital, London, in 1895, Livingstone College afforded Manson his first opportunity to teach courses in tropical medicine. Manson's early career was as a physician in the Far East where he deduced the correct etiology of filariasis, a parasitic vector based disease, transmitted through the bite of a mosquito. On his return to London, he was appointed Medical Advisor to the Colonial Office. He strongly believed that doctors should be trained in tropical medicine to treat British colonial administrators and others working throughout Britain's tropical empire. He also encouraged and mentored Ronald Ross during this period to uncover the correct etiology of malaria, which Ross subsequently discovered in 1897, winning the Nobel Prize for his efforts. The original school was established as part of the Seamen's Hospital Society.