In this month’s podcast, Rod McLure talks to Professor Richard Matzopoulos, about his work as a researcher-practitioner working across government and academia in South Africa. He details his data-driven policy work to support an evidence-based approach to large impact upstream nation-level interventions.

Richard Matzopoulos is a Chief Specialist Scientist and Co-Director of the South African Medical Research Council’s Burden of Disease Research Unit and an Honorary Professor at the University of Cape Town’s Division of Public Health Medicine, where he co-ordinates its Violence and Injury Research programme. His research centres on measuring the health and social burden of violence and injury, and evaluating interventions and policies that target upstream determinants. He advises the Western Cape Government on alcohol harm reduction, and interpersonal violence and injury prevention and surveillance. He is a South African focal point for the international Violence Prevention Alliance and a member of the International Collaborative Effort on Injury Statistics and Methods.