Jaakko Tuomilehto, MD, MA (sociology), PhD, FRCP(Edin), HonF IDF is Professor Emeritus of Public Health of University of Helsinki, Finland and serves as President of the World Community for Prevention of Diabetes Foundation in Madrid, Spain. He has been also working in World Health Organisation and in many other countries, such as Austria, China, Colombia, Kuwait, Mauritius, and Saudi Arabia

His research interests include the epidemiology and prevention of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia. His research on healthy lifestyle – nutrition, physical activity and sleep – has been substantial. He has coordinated numerous scientific research projects and contributed many landmark studies and involved in epidemiological studies in many countries. He started his research career in 1972 with the North Karelia Project in Finland, the first ever community-based cardiovascular disease prevention program.

He initiated and led the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study, the first proper controlled trial on prevention of type 2 diabetes, that demonstrated a 58% reduction in incidence diabetes with lifestyle intervention. These experiences were used to design and the first-ever national diabetes prevention program in Finland, and many diabetes prevention activities globally. He developed a simple, non-laboratory diabetes risk score FINDRISC (FINnish Diabetes RIsk Score) that is the most commonly used tool for diabetes screening globally.

He has received over 30 prestigious scientific awards, and has been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

He is actively involved in several other committees, and advisory boards nationally and internationally and has been chairing multiple scientific organisations. He has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Primary Care Diabetes journal and Editorial Board member in many other scientific journals. He has trained over 130 doctoral fellows, many of them have been appointed to highly recognised positions.

He has contributed to over 2000 scientific peer-reviewed publications and is among the most cited authors in the field of diabetes worldwide. In 2025 by Microsoft Research.com citation analysis by Google Scholar with >350,000 citations, he ranks as #18 among all scientists in Medicine globally and #3 in Europe. His h-index is 262.

He is farming blackcurrants.