John Hills

Sir John Robert Hills, (29 July 1954 – 21 December 2020) was a British academic, latterly professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. He acted as director of the ESRC Research Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion from 1997. His work focused on inequality, and the role of social policy over the life course. Education John Hills was educated at Nottingham High School and Abingdon School. At Abingdon he was Head of Dayboys and won the St Catherine's prize for Intellectual Initiative, the Smith Chemistry prize and Ingham Physics Prize, in addition to English and Mathematics prizes. Before going to Cambridge he conducted research at Euratom. He studied at the University of Cambridge for his undergraduate degree, and at the University of Birmingham for his master's degree (MSocSc Economics, 1980). Work Hills worked at the LSE from 1986 until his death in 2020, having previously held research posts at HM Treasury and the Institute for Fiscal Studies. His appointment as Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) in 1997 coincided with the election of New Labour and a greater level of interest in issues around poverty and social exclusion. He took part in a number of high-profile reviews for government. These included a review of fuel poverty in 2011; a 2010 report on inequality for the National Equality panel; and, a 2007 review of council housing entitled Ends and Means.