Jonathan Patz

For scheduling inquiries, please contact valerie.peterson@wisc.edu.

Jonathan Patz, M.D., MPH, (@jonathanpatz) is inaugural director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who stepped down in May 2022 to concentrate fully on his work in climate and health. He is the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and the John P. Holton Chair of Health and the Environment with appointments in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Population Health Sciences. 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 with Al Gore. He also co-­chaired the health expert panel of the U.S. National Assessment on Climate Change, a report mandated by the U.S. Congress. He is also an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Patz is committed to connecting colleagues from across campus and communities around the world to improve health for all and is continually striving to integrate his research into teaching for students and communication to policy makers and the general public.

Patz has written more than 200 scientific papers with more than 100 peer-reviewed, a textbook addressing the health effects of global environmental change and co‐edited the five­‐volume Encyclopedia of Environmental Health (2011). He, most recently, co-edited “Climate Change and Public Health” (2015, Oxford University Press) and is leading a Massive Open Online Course “Climate Change Policy and Public Health.”

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.

In addition to directing the university-­wide Global Health Institute, Patz has faculty appointments in the Nelson Institute, Center for Sustainability & the Global Environment (SAGE) and the Department of Population Health Sciences. He also directs the NSF sponsored Certificate on Humans and the Global Environment (CHANGE).

Patz is double board-­certified, earning medical boards in both Occupational/Environmental Medicine and Family Medicine and received his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University (1987) and his Master of Public Health degree (1992) from Johns Hopkins University.

Patz CV January 2019

TedxOshkosh: “Climate Change is Affecting Our Health. Is There a Cure?” January 10, 2018

National Academy of Sciences keynote, “Protecting the Health and Well-being of Communities in a Changing Climate,” March 13, 2017

Patz addresses Physicians for Social Responsibility’s Climate Health Summit: “Climate and Health: Where We Stand.”

Congressional Testimony to US Senate – Chaired by Ted Kennedy, April 10, 2008

In the news: 

• “Global Warming Is Happening More Rapidly. Wisconsin Is Already Feeling It.” Wisconsin Public Radio, Summer 2021
• Patz discusses the effect of earth’s health on human health at Aquatic Academy Spring 2020
• “Climate Change Best Case Scenario: Save Millions, Make Trillions,” Forbes, September 26, 2019
• Patz shows climate change is a major public health issue: Wisconsin Public Radio
• Patz explains to Minnesota Public Radio why climate change is the most important public health challenge
• Patz presents at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health.
• EcoHealth, like GHI, calls for addressing climate change to benefit human, animal and ecosystem health
• Patz interviewed in Tonic about the connection between climate change and deadly infections
• Patz interviewed by WBUR about how climate change is a public health crisis
• Patz talks health opportunities — not risks — en route to Paris climate conference
• Patz gives a talk at the Minocqua Brewing Company for the monthly “Science on Tap-Minocqua” series
• Journal Sentinel Op-Ed: Move forward on climate change
• Huffington Post op-ed: On the (Bike) Path to Prosperity: Why Banning Bikes is Bad for Kolkata
• Huffington Post op-ed: Curbing Fossil Fuels to Power a Public Health Revolution
• Wisconsin State Journal op-ed: Fix Roads and Bridges, but Also Public Health
• African academies tap Patz to chair 20-nation joint meeting on climate change
• Patz interviewed by CNN, Buzz Herald and Well+Good about the impact of climate change on mental health
• Patz speaks at the Caribbean Planetary Health Conference about the benefits of switching to renewable energy
• Patz on reasons for hope against the novel coronavirus

COVID-19 and Planetary Health Talks 

• Earth Leadership Program, “This Changes Everything – Sustainability Science in a Post-COVID-19 World”
• Future Earth, “This Changes Everything – Sustainability Science in a Post-COVID-19 World”
• Crossroads of Ideas, “COVID-19 Edition, Part 2″
• UW-Madison Nelson Institute, “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Urgency for Planetary Health Approach”
• Wisconsin Public Radio, “Why Climate Change Can Lead to More Pandemics“
• University of Illinois at Chicago, “Climate Justice Meets Global Health in the time of COVID-19“
• Aquarium of the Pacific, “Spring 2020 Aquatic Academy – The Effects of Earth’s Health on Human Health”

Selected Links

• Department of Population Health Sciences
• Ecohealth
• Article in Spring 2008 UW Foundation Insights
• August, 2012, presentation on Climate Change and Health to the UW Bascom Hill Society
• News coverage of our health study on low-carbon transportation for the Midwest region
• Lecture at Univ. Washington, 2010
• Informal Congressional Briefing via EESI
• Informal Congressional Briefing via AMS
• Keynote presentation at World Sight Day Conference 2018