Professor Val Curtis passed away in October 2020, due to cancer, at the age of 62. She was the Director of the Environmental Health Group at LSHTM, still becoming a fierce old battleaxe (in her own words), and was an inspirational professor, colleague, teacher, mother, friend and life partner. Many learned of Val's illness through an article published in The Guardian where she used her own terminal situation to highlight the human cost that austerity has had on the NHS. Publishing the article, as many have commented, was a courageous act, but not out of character: the NHS was one of many causes she fought for outside of her work, alongside being a committed Labour & anti-Brexit campaigner. Val credited her daughter Naima for re-vitalising her radical side in the last few years, joining protests and campaigning vocally on issues close to her heart, even doing her part to contribute to the Black Lives Matter movement in July 2020, during what would be her last few months.

Val described joining LSHTM as a Research Fellow in 1989 as getting her dream job, where she could build a career based on her passion for tackling intellectual challenges, and her desire to improve peoples lives, developing evidence-based solutions to global hygiene challenges. Her dream job at LSHTM allowed Val to become an eminent scientist and public health advocate, eventually becoming a Professor. She built a reputation as a world-class researcher and passionate advocate for safe water, sanitation and hygiene, leading a large and dynamic group of researchers as Director of the Environmental Health Group.

Val had a multidisciplinary background, spanning engineering, public health and evolutionary anthropology, as her research interests progressed from epidemiological studies to a deeper understanding of human behaviour and motivation, in order to design interventions that more effectively combat the spread of diseases. She made major contributions to the field of water and sanitation, almost single-handedly ensuring that hygiene became a recognised part of the WASH field. Vals list of published scientific papers and multiple books, demonstrate her commitment and expertise, and it is cruelly ironic that just when the COVID-19 pandemic meant that the world was listening to the handwashing and behaviour change advice like never before, Val was unable to contribute in the way she would have liked. Nevertheless, despite her ill health, right up until the end, she was an active member of SPI-B the UK government's behavioural advisory group, as well as an advisor to the Indian and Tanzanian governments on their national sanitation campaigns.

Val was as effective in her communication as in her research, a rare combination that was recognised in 2009 when she was awarded "Health Communicator of the Year" by the British Medical Journal. All who knew her will remember her favourite topic was disgust, which proved a perfect springboard to enable her to communicate complex scientific theory in an engaging and contagious way, as she shocked and enlightened her audience at the same time. Her determination to drive conversations about hygiene, public health and disgust, pushed hygiene up the global health agenda, and earned her the title of The Queen of Hygiene. She played a critical role in having hygiene included under the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, co-founded the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing, helped to found Global Handwashing Day, co-developed the Behaviour Centred Design model for behaviour change, and worked with organisations in over 70 countries on the design and evaluation of innovative WASH interventions.

Val was a talented educator, supporting many students through their PhDs, and inspiring many more to take up careers in public health. She recently gave her inaugural lecture, Discovering Behaviour in which she looked back on her career and rallied the next generation of researchers to pick up the public health baton.

Val's colleagues at the Environmental Health Group said: "No one has done more to put hygiene on the global health agenda than Professor Val Curtis. Through careful research and powerful advocacy she inspired a generation of researchers and has transformed how we think about hygiene-related behaviour change and public health. Her legacy is far-reaching and will be felt for decades to come."

The Val Curtis Memorial Fund will support research and causes close to Val's heart. To continue her amazing legacy, please consider making a gift today.