Michael Hayes Award in Public Health and Social Policy
Michael Hayes is Professor Emeritus in, and former Director of, the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria. His research interests focused on health inequities and social policy. He combined his academic interests in geography (BA, PhD) with his interests in health research (MSc in epidemiology) to help establish the field of Population Health Promotion, which takes a life course perspective on how the interplay of social experiences, biology and environmental context shape the health outcomes of populations, and uses this information to promote promising social policy interventions. Prior to joining faculty at UVic, he spent 22 years at Simon Fraser University, where he was a founding member of the Faculty of Health Sciences. He held several advisory positions for various government ministries/agencies and was founding co-editor of the journal Health & Place. In 2017 he was awarded an honorary degree by McMaster University (his alma mater) for his contributions to the field. He retired in 2019.