Professor Tony Capon, Monash University

Professor Tony Capon is Director of Monash Sustainable Development Institute and holds a Chair in Planetary Health in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. Professor Capon has more than two decades of senior leadership and management experience in public health policy, research and education, and has consulted in many countries and for a wide variety of organizations.

Professor Capon is an Advisory Board Member of the Global Health Alliance, a member of the Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on Planetary Health that published its report Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch in 2015, and the International Advisory Board for The Lancet Planetary Health.

A former director of the International Institute for Global Health at United Nations University (UNU-IIGH), Professor Capon has held professorial appointments at the University of Sydney and Australian National University and is a Foundation Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine in the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

Professor Tony Capon, an internationally recognized public health physician and authority on environmental health and health promotion, focuses his policy-relevant research on urbanization, sustainable development, and population health. Professor Capon has been prominent in the nexus between climate and health in Australia for many years, as evidenced by his co-authored 2010 publication examining research and policy priorities in this field. He regularly publishes in international health and environmental science journals, including The Lancet and Nature Climate Change. In 2017, Professor Capon co-founded the MJA-Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change to track progress in Australia.

As the founder of the CSIRO-funded Flagship Collaboration Cluster on Urbanism, Climate Adaptation, and Health (2010-2013), Professor Capon led an interdisciplinary team across seven institutions, building new knowledge for decision-making about Australian cities to protect and promote health in a changing climate. As the founding co-director of the NSW Healthy Built Environments Program with Professor Susan Thompson (UNSW, Urban Planning), Professor Capon has made substantial contributions to understanding the relationships between health and the built environment, including planning for active living, healthy food systems, and social connection. This program focused on research, interdisciplinary education for built environment and health professionals, in-service capacity building, and professional leadership.

Professor Tony Capon holds the following qualifications:

FAFPHM (Royal Australasian College of Physicians)
Grad Dip Hlth Prom (Curtin University)
PhD (University of Queensland)
MBBS (University of Queensland)
BMedSci (University of Queensland)