Simon Chapman

Who is Simon Chapman?

Simon Fenton Chapman, AO is an Australian academic and tobacco control activist.

He is Professor in Public Health at the University of Sydney. Chapman is a sociologist whose PhD examined the semiotics of cigarette advertising. He has authored 17 books and major reports, 300 papers and 180 letters and commentaries in peer reviewed journals.

Chapman is a regular writer on public health matters in leading Australian newspapers, having written over 230 opinion page and journalistic articles since 1981. His main research interests are in tobacco control, media discourses on health and illness, and risk communication. He teaches annual courses in Public Health Advocacy and Tobacco Control in the University of Sydney's MPH program.

In 1997 Chapman won the World Health Organisation's World No Tobacco Day Medal; in 1999, the National Heart Foundation of Australia's gold medal; in 2006 the Thoracic Society of Australia's The Thoracic Society of Australia & New Zealand President's Award. In 2003 he was voted by his international peers to be awarded the American Cancer Society's Luther L. Terry Award for outstanding individual leadership in tobacco control.