Sarah Hawkes is Reader in Global Health at the Institute of Global Health. She has spent much of the past 20 years working and living in South Asia, generating and disseminating evidence relating to the burden of sexual ill-health (including HIV and other sexually transmitted infections) among men and women in this Region. She currently leads a research group at UCL looking at the link between empirical evidence and policy responses in sexual health and gender.  Members of Sarah's research group, in collaboration with political scientists, are undertaking research in a number of low- and middle-income countries including China, Nepal and Malawi. Sarah is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in International Public Engagement. She also works extensively with WHO as a member of various expert groups in sexual health and STIs.