Dr Jo Middleton FRGS MRSB MFPH is based at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and is Planetary Health Theme Lead at Sussex Sustainability Research Programme.

Jo is a Member of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom (MFPH). Presently, they are mainly improving scabies outbreak control in Britain and East Africa, and integrating medicine and conservation in Papua New Guinea. More broadly, their research and teaching concerns medical parasitology, public health, neglected tropical diseases, and planetary health (safeguarding human health & its underpinning natural systems). 

Before joining the University as a researcher in 2014, they worked in the ambulance service and taught courses for Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust staff and those travelling to remote areas. For their active interest in expedition health and remote care, and related experience in jungles and deserts, they were honoured to be elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) in 2025.

Jo has a long term commitment to conservation, particularly forest preservation and indigenous health in Oceania (>25 years). Thus, in addition to their university work they chair the not-for-profit WildHealth C.I.C., which creates and supports win-win interventions for human health and biodiversity. They are also Module Convenor for 'Advanced Topics in Conservation', a year-3 module in the BSc Ecology and Conservation course.

Prospective research students: Jo has supervised completed PhD, MPhil, and BMBS research across medical parasitology, public health, conservation biology, and pre-hospital care. Prospective doctoral, master’s, and undergraduate students are welcome to contact them to discuss potential projects.

Expertise: Public health; medical parasitology (particularly acarine: scabies. Lyme disease etc.); planetary health; remote pre-hospital care; outbreak research; disease ecology; Rapid anthropological Assessment Procedures for health; biodiversity conservation; Papua New Guinea.

Other relevant positions and memberships: 

• Visiting Professor of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Health Organization, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan
• Planetary Health Theme Lead, Sussex Sustainability Research Programme
• Chair, WildHealth C.I.C.
• Member, Brighton and Sussex Medico-Chirurgical Society; IUCN Species Survival Commission; WHO Skin Neglected Tropical Diseases Working Group
• BSMS institutional liaison with the Planetary Health Alliance