After the opening session from the first day of the ENSP Youth Tobacco Control Leadership School in Poland, a special moment was dedicated to the commemoration of Dr Mateusz Zatonski’s achievements. Participants together with organisers spent a few minutes remembering and celebrating the rich life and inspiring professional accomplishments of our dear colleague and friend, Dr Mateusz Zygmunt Zatoński, who suddenly passed away earlier this year following a short illness from a very rare cancer, at the young age of 34.
On this note, ENSP President Prof Florin Mihaltan presented the life of Mateusz and offered the post-humous award, serving as recognition of his efforts to strengthen the tobacco control community. He said:
“Mateusz was a vibrant and talented public health scholar, who, in his short career, had already made a notable impact in the field of tobacco control and public health in Europe and globally. He had many roles and was wearing many complementary hats, which made him such a successful young leader and an effective collaborator. Without doubts, Mateusz would have been here with us today if the illness had not taken him from us far too soon.”
There were many crossroads on Mateusz’s professional journey that have ultimately led him to pursue a career in Public Health. From College of Europe, to University College London, his focus broadened from history and politics to public health, inspired by his father’s work as an eminent global public health leader, cancer epidemiologist and tobacco control expert. Mateusz’s academic career brought many accolades and prizes. As a student in Glasgow, he won the James Kellas Prize for the best joint honours student in politics, while, in 2018, the Society for the Social History of Medicine awarded him the Roy Porter Student Essay Prize for the best original essay in the social history of medicine. In 2019, Mateusz was awarded a European Union Young Forum Gastein scholarship to young European health professionals to participate in the European Health Forum Gastein. While studying for his PhD, his excellence in research led to visiting fellowships and scholarships at institutions including Harvard and the University of California in San Francisco. He then joined the University of Bath in 2019, becoming a research fellow with the Tobacco Control Research Group led by Professor Anna Gilmore, and through them contributing research to the global tobacco industry watchdog, STOP. In May 2022, the World Health Organization recognised Dr Mateusz Zatoński’s contribution to tobacco control efforts in Europe and globally with posthumous honour and WHO World No Tobacco Day Medal.
Those who worked with him have described him as “an exceptional colleague” and “a role-model”, who did “meaningful research [that will] improve the lives of many people”. His PhD supervisor, Professor Martin McKee of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, described his death as “a huge loss for tobacco control and for public health more generally”. Professor Anna Gilmore, Director of Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, remembers him as “an amazing diplomat – able to negotiate complex and divisive issues with intelligence, charm and humour”, and “not only a truly brilliant researcher, but above all a wonderful human being.”
The death of Mateusz brought an immense loss to his family and friends, as well as to the public health and tobacco control community. We take consolation in knowing just how much incredibly valuable impact Mateusz has had in his relatively short, but rich achievements and experiences lifetime. This is why on this occasion, we wanted to cherish and honour the wonderful person he was with the ENSP Award for Outstanding Contribution to Tobacco Control and work together to preserve his legacy.
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