Pioneer of climate change and health to deliver Chanchlani lecture

Jonathan Patz, MD, MPH, professor and director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin will receive this year’s Chanchlani Global Health Research Award and deliver a lecture at McMaster University on February 10.

Patz is a pioneer in the study of the connection between climate and health. He organized the first American Public Health Association discussions and resolutions on climate change, setting the stage for more than two decades of work establishing this field of health science and communicating its importance to policymakers and the public. Recently, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine in recognition of his ground-breaking research showing the risk global climate change poses for human health.

His talk at McMaster will explore ways in which climate change mitigation policies in the energy, food, and transportation sectors can substantially reduce the global burden of chronic diseases.

“Global health and climate change are inextricably linked, and we are delighted to welcome global health expert Jonathan Patz to shed light on why actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions are so urgent from a health perspective,” says Andrea Baumann, associate V-P Global Health and director of the MSc Global Health program.

Patz and his team’s important discoveries include: the impact of climate change on increased risk for asthma; the relationship between heat wave mortality and latitude; and increased malaria risk from combined land use and local climatic change in the Amazon Basin. Most recently, Patz has described the substantial health benefits that arise from improved air quality and physical fitness by reducing the use of fossil fuels.

For more than 15 years, he served as a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the organization that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

Patz has also testified on climate change and health in houses of Congress and in state legislatures, and recently served on a committee of the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Patz will accept the Chanchlani award and deliver his talk on Feb. 10 from 5 – 6:30 p.m. in the Health Sciences Lecture Hall 1A1 in the Ewart Angus Centre. For more information and to RSVP, please contact adairr@mcmaster.ca