New Year's Honour for founder of Fuse

Eugene Milne, Honorary Emeritus Professor of Public Health and recently retired Director of Public Health (DPH) for Newcastle upon Tyne, has been appointed MBE for services to Public Health and Wellbeing.

Eugene was the service lead in establishment of Fuse, working closely with former Centre Director Professor Martin White. He has continued his close involvement with the collaboration and also with the NIHR School for Public Health Research, publishing work on tobacco control, ageing, health economics and a variety of public health topics.

Professor Milne is a Newcastle graduate, both in medicine and in public health, and trained initially in paediatrics, gaining Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (MRCP) before switching specialties in 1990. He subsequently served as a consultant in local health authorities, as Deputy Regional DPH for the North East and as Director of Adult Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England, before returning in 2014 as DPH for the Newcastle City Council.

He initiated the establishment of Fresh: Smoke Free North East, which is recognised as a model for regional tobacco control, winning the Chief Medical Officer’s Gold Medal in 2009 and the Irish Cancer Society’s Charles Cully Medal in 2012.

Between 2014 and 2019, he was joint editor with Fuse Associate Professor Ted Schrecker of the Journal of Public Health. He has a long involvement with NIHR, serving on its Public Health Prioritisation Committee. From 2006, he spent 10 years as a member and latterly vice-Chair of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Technology Appraisal Committee. He continues to serve on the national Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation and was a panel member of REF2021.

As DPH for the city, Professor Milne led Newcastle’s public health response to the Covid pandemic and was instrumental in the establishment of the Integrated Covid Hub.

In June 2022 he received the Faculty of Public Health’s most prestigious award, the Alwyn Smith Prize, in recognition of his “exceptional service to public health”.

He said: "I am delighted to accept this honour. Everyone in public health knows that it is a team activity, and I have been blessed with terrific colleagues over the years. I would not be here without them. But individual recognition is a lovely fillip, and I am very grateful to whoever made the nomination."

Last modified: Thu, 19 Jan 2023 23:36:45 GMT