Professor Jan C. Semenza directs the work on environmental and social determinants of infectious diseases at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm.   He was an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  He also worked with the World Health Organization (WHO) and conducted public health projects in Uzbekistan, Sudan, Egypt, Denmark, Brazil, and Haiti. 

 

Professor Semenza was a faculty member at UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, Oregon Health and Science University, and at Portland State University where he taught in the Oregon Masters Program of Public Health. 

 

His interest in reducing climate risks for society at large, extents back 20 years; in July 1995, a record-breaking heat wave claimed more than 700 individuals in Chicago.  He led the CDC response to this environmental calamity and elucidated the underlying environmental, societal, and behavioural causes of this tragic event.  The findings of this study were immediately incorporated into an action plan for the city of Chicago with detailed measures to prevent future heat-related deaths.  He was subsequently awarded a Certificate of Commendation by the City of Chicago for this investigation.  He is currently working on environmental and climatic drivers of vector-borne and water-borne disease transmission in Europe.  His research has been published in high-impact journals such as Cell, New England J of Medicine, Lancet ID, Science, Nature Climate Change and in several books.  

 

 

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