"Wicked" problems in public health: epidemics, climate change, and migration
Many of the major public health challenges of the 21st century result from complex and inter-related social, biological, political, and economic dynamics. Here, I will discuss three very different projects – measuring the impact of gold mining on malaria in the Amazon, responding to extreme weather events, and measuring the impact of extreme heat on the physiology of informal workers in India – that illustrate the range of data challenges associated with public health surveillance, and argue that many of the modeling approaches currently being used to guide policy decisions at the highest levels are often fundamentally flawed. Finally, I will discuss the potential role of technology and AI in shifting how health research is conducted to the community level.
Biosketch of speaker: Caroline Buckee is a Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health with a focus on infectious disease ecology and evolution. She holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford, and prior to her appointment at Harvard in 2010, she was an Omidyar Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute, and a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kenya Medical Research Institute and the University of Oxford. From 2013-2023, Dr. Buckee was the Associate Director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard. 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. Dr. Buckee’s research interests span infectious disease epidemiology – 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.
Date: 27 May 2025, 13:00
Venue: Biology South Parks Road, South Parks Road OX1 3RB
Venue Details: Biology building South Parks Road (former Plants Sciences Building), Large Lecture Theatre
Speaker: Caroline Buckee (Harvard University)
Organising department: Department of Biology
Organiser contact email address: andrea.kastner@biology.ox.ac.uk
Host: Prof Sunetra Gupta (Department of Biology)
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Andrea Kastner