Sir Nicholas John Wald (born 31 May 1944) is a British medical academic who is honorary professor of preventive medicine, University College London, honorary professor, Population Health Research Institute,

St George's, University of London St George's, University of London (SGUL), legally the St George's Hospital Medical School, was a public medical school from 1733 to 2024 in South London, England. It merged with City, University of London to form City St George's, University of ...

, visiting professor,

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, and honorary consultant and adjunct professor,

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, Rhode Island. He was professor of environmental and preventive medicine from 1983 to 2019 at

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, commonly known as Barts or BL, is a medical school, medical and dental school in London, England. The school is part of Queen Mary University of London, a constituent college of the federal ...

, where he was co-founder and director of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine. In the 1970s, Wald showed that fetal

neural tube defect Neural tube defects (NTDs) are a group of birth defects in which an opening in the spine or cranium remains from early in human development. In the third week of pregnancy called gastrulation, specialized cells on the dorsal side of the embryo ...

s could be detected by measuring

alpha-fetoprotein Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP, α-fetoprotein; also sometimes called alpha-1-fetoprotein, alpha-fetoglobulin, or alpha fetal protein) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''AFP'' gene. The ''AFP'' gene is located on the ''q'' arm of chromosome ...

in the pregnant woman's blood. He was the innovator of the “MoM”, or

multiple of the median A multiple of the median (MoM) is a measure of how far an individual test result deviates from the median. MoM is commonly used to report the results of medical screening tests, particularly where the results of the individual tests are highly ...

, a measure of the level of screening markers. He, with colleagues, first described the

Triple test The triple test, also called triple screen, the Kettering test or the Bart's test, is an investigation performed during pregnancy in the second trimester to classify a patient as either high-risk or low-risk for chromosomal abnormalities (and n ...

(1988), Combined test (1998), Quad test (2003), Integrated test (1999) and Reflex DNA test (2015). In 1986 Wald showed that

environmental tobacco smoke Passive smoking is the inhalation of tobacco smoke, called passive smoke, secondhand smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), by individuals other than the active smoker. It occurs when tobacco smoke diffuses into the surrounding atmo ...

was a cause of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

and was a member of the US

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

Committeethe first public body that reached this conclusion. In 2003, with Professor Malcolm Law, he showed that

also causes

cardiovascular disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina, heart attack), heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumati ...

. In 1991 Wald showed that folic acid supplementation prevented most cases of

s. In 1999, together with Law, he invented the

polypill A polypill or single pill combination (SPC) is a type of drug combination consisting of a single drug product in pill form (i.e., tablet or capsule) and thus ''combines'' multiple medications (that is, more than one active pharmaceutical ingred ...

. He received, in 2000, the

Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation The Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation is a non-profit foundation founded in memory of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy killed in action during World War II, who was the elder brother of President John F. Kennedy. The foundation ...

Award, was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

(FRS) in 2004, and

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the

2008 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 2008 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of the Queen's Of ...

for services to

preventive medicine Preventive healthcare, or prophylaxis, is the application of healthcare measures to prevent diseases.Hugh R. Leavell and E. Gurney Clark as "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical and mental health a ...

. In 2019 he was elected a member of the US

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wald, Nicholas 1944 births Living people British medical researchers British public health doctors Fellows of the Royal Society Knights Bachelor Academics of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry Medical doctors from London Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) Members of the National Academy of Medicine