Michael Herbert Watt CBE (16 March 1887 – 7 April 1967) was a New Zealand physician and public health administrator.

[1][2] With the outbreak of the Second World War, in 1939 he was appointed to chair a wartime medical advisory committee and in 1942 as controller of the Hospitals Emergency Precautions Service.

[1] From 1948 to 1947, he was UNICEF's regional director for Southeast Asia;[3] appointed in 1949 to head the Far East mission, he was unable to take up the post after a medical examination led to his being diagnosed with chronic lymphatic leukaemia.

[4] He played a major role in establishing the Journal of the New Zealand Branch of the Royal Sanitary Institute (1934), the Medical Research Council of New Zealand (1937) and the South Pacific Board of Health (1944),[1] and laid the groundwork for the establishment of the National Health Institute.

[1][5] In the 1935 King's Birthday Honours, Watt was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to public health.