Madeleine Thomson is Head of Climate Impacts and Adaptation, in the Climate Change and Health Challenge Area at the Wellcome; a politically & financially independent philanthropic foundation which supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. Prior to this role she was the interim Head of Our Planet Our Health at Wellcome; having joined the London based organisation in July 2019.  

Dr Thomson is a visiting Professor at Lancaster University, UK and an Emeritus professor at Columbia University, New York where she previously held senior research positions at the International Research Institute (IRI) for Climate and Society and the Mailman School of Public Health. While at IRI she served as Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Early Warning Systems for Malaria and Other Climate-Sensitive Diseases (including meningococcal meningitis and ZikaV) and was co-chair of the cross Columbia working group on global health security.  

She was educated at the University of Sheffield (BSc), Imperial College London (MSc) and the University of Liverpool (PhD).