PSI seminar: ‘Quantifying social and environmental drivers of health in vulnerable communities from the Amazon to Ahmedabad’ presented by Professor Caroline Buckee
This talk is for PSI staff and students. Members of the University who are not at the PSI are welcome to join, but please contact us beforehand to let us know (events.psi@ndm.ox.ac.uk).
We are delighted to welcome Professor Caroline Buckee, Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard, known for her work on infectious disease dynamics and public health modelling. In this seminar, she will discuss malaria transmission in the Amazon, extreme heat impacts on informal workers in India and the importance of community-led research.

The seminar will be chaired by James Hay and will take place on Tuesday 21 October, from 16:00 to 17:00, in the St Cross College lecture theatre. Following the seminar, there will be a drinks reception and an opportunity to network with all attendees.

Abstract
Professor Caroline Buckee will discuss how malaria dynamics in the Amazon are shaped by gold mining and human migration, highlighting the challenges faced by malaria control programmes in remote regions across it will discuss how malaria epidemiology and dynamics in the Amazon are driven by gold mining and human migration, and how this creates challenges for malaria control programs in remote settings across the Americas. Professor Buckee will base this discussion in the context of how mathematical models are used to support programmatic decision making, and argue that social and economic drivers are more important than environmental determinants in malaria outbreaks in the region. Professor Buckee will also discuss a project in Ahmedabad, India, on the impact of extreme heat on women working in the informal sector, and the importance of community-led research to address health problems.

Biography
Professor Caroline Buckee is a Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Professor Buckee’s research interests span infectious disease epidemiology and ecology, with a focus on vector borne diseases including malaria and dengue, human mobility and the impact of labor migration on the spread of epidemics, and the intersection of climate risks and human health and well-being. Professor Buckee’s group actively supports National Malaria Control Programs in the global south to improve surveillance and analytical approaches to targeting interventions. Her group has several projects focusing on the impact of gold-mining on malaria transmission and control in the Amazon region in South America. In India, Professor Buckee’s group is working with communities to understand the impact of extreme heat on poor working women, and to develop community-led intervention research.

From 2013-2023, Dr. Buckee was the Associate Director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. She co-founded and co-directs Crisis Ready (crisisready.io), a joint platform between Harvard’s Data Science Initiative (HDSI) and Direct Relief, to support data-driven responses to public health emergencies and disasters. Dr. Buckee co-leads the South Asia Climate and Health Research Cluster supported by Harvard’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability.
Date: 21 October 2025, 16:00
Venue: St Cross College, St Giles OX1 3LZ
Venue Details: St Cross College lecture theatre
Speaker: Professor Caroline Buckee (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)
Organising department: Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine
Organisers: James Hay (Wellcome Trust Early Career Fellow), Ksenia Ananyeva (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: events.psi@ndm.ox.ac.uk
Host: Pandemic Sciences Institute
Part of: Pandemic Sciences Institute seminar series
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPkfqJsIz1OHtImXkbS9R4tRRUNkNaV1hCM0o1OFpZTzNSVVM5NVlMQVVMOC4u
Cost: Free
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Ksenia Ananyeva