School of Public Health turns 40

Happy birthday: Director Prof Leslie London (right) cuts the cake as staff and former students celebrate the 40th anniversary of the School of Public Health and Family Medicine.

Staff (past and present) and former students recalled milestones and highlights as they celebrated the 40th birthday of UCT's School of Public Health and Family Medicine (PHFM) in August. Proceedings were led by the long-serving Professor Margaret Hoffman, now honorary research associate in the school's Women's Health Research Unit. She described the changes to both the names and roles of the PHFM since its inception in 1972, when the first chair in comprehensive medicine was created. Today the staff complement is more than 150 - up significantly from the six who started at the school in 1972, reported Hoffman. Postgraduate students number over 250, and a wide range of research activities across the field of public health have been consolidated.