Tony Barnett is an interdisciplinary social scientist currently based at the Royal Veterinary College where he is Professor of Social Sciences. He was previously at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and was for six years ESRC Professorial Research Fellow at the London School of Economics.
Between 1986 and 2007 he worked mainly on HIV/AIDS issues. This led to his long-term interest in zoonotic diseases. During this time, in addition to many papers he wrote two books, AIDS in Africa: its present and future impact (co-author Piers Blaikie), 1992 and AIDS in the 21st Century: disease and globalisation (co-author Alan Whiteside), 2002 and fully revised edition 2006. He has completed many research projects in different parts of Africa, from his early work in Sudan (The Gezira Scheme: an illusion of development, 1977) to his more recent work in Uganda and South Africa.
He is co-investigator on the One Heath Poultry Hub, funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). This is an interdisciplinary research project addressing the need to meet rising demand for poultry meat and eggs in developing countries, while minimising risk to international public health. This work is based in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Vietnam and has implications for the management of zoonotic disease risk in Africa and elsewhere.
In addition to his post at the Royal Veterinary College and his visiting professorship at the LSE, he is a Visiting Fellow at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester.