Jonathan Patz

Jonathan Patz, MD, MPH, is the John P. Holton Chair of Health and the Environment, and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor with faculty appointments in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For 15 years, Patz served as a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (or IPCC)—the organization that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, and he co-­chaired the health expert panel of the first U.S. National Climate Assessment. In 2019, he was elected to the US National Academy of Medicine.  Other selected awards include: the (shared) Zayed International Prize for the Environment; Fulbright Scholarship; American Public Health Association’s Homer Calver Award; Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars; Special Recognition Award from Case Western Medical Alumni; and the Chanchlani Global Health Research Award.

Patz has written more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers, several textbooks addressing the health effects of global environmental change and co‐edited a five­‐volume Encyclopedia of Environmental Health. He most recently co-edited (with B Levy) the 2nd edition of “Climate Change and Public Health” (2024, Oxford University Press). He has been invited to brief both houses of Congress and has served on several scientific committees of the National Academy of Sciences. Patz served as Founding President of the International Association for Ecology and Health, and from 2011-2022, inaugural director of UW-Madison’s Global Health Institute.

Patz currently directs the UW-Madison Center for Health, Energy and Environmental Research (CHEER) and has researched the topic of climate change/health since 1996 (EPA STAR award) followed by subsequent grants from NOAA, NASA, NSF and NIH.  Dr. Patz has been board-­certified in Occupational/Environmental Medicine since 1997 coupled with a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He received his MD from Case Western Reserve University and a BA from Colorado College.

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