Professor Macfarlane holds the Chair in Epidemiology within the School of Epidemiology and Health Sciences at the University of Manchester. He was previously Senior Lecturer within the Arthritis Research Campaign's Epidemiology Unit also at the University of Manchester and Deputy Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan. He has authored approximately 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles, book chapters and reviews. He has lectured widely on Chronic Disease Epidemiology and taught on several courses.