John Last has held academic positions with the British Medical Research Council in London, at the Universities of Sydney, Vermont (USA), and Edinburgh and has been professor of epidemiology and community medicine at the University of Ottawa since 1969. He was the editor of the 11^th 12^th and 13^th editions of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and editor emeritus of the 14^th edition ("Maxcy-Rosenau-Last"); editor of the 1^st, 2^nd , 3^rd and 4^th editions of the Dictionary of Epidemiology, and author of the 1^st and 2^nd editions of Public Health and Human Ecology. He was the scientific editor of the Canadian Journal of Public Health 1981-1991, the editor of Annals of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada 1990-1997, and has served as editor or a member of the editorial board of several other medical journals. He is one of three editors of the 3^rd edition of the Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicine (publication April 2001) and one of the five editors of the Macmillan Encyclopaedia of Public Health (2001). He is the author of chapters in 42 books and over 200 original articles in journals of medicine and science.

Dr. Last's principal research interests are in the sustainability of human health in environments and ecosystems that are becoming less sustainable, and aspects of medical ethics that relate to public health and epidemiology.