TIME: 3:30 PM

LOCATION: GMCS 314

SPEAKER: Meghnath Dhimal, Harvard University, T.H. Chan School of Public Health

ABSTRACT: Global environmental change driven by global warming, land use change, rapid urbanization, and intensified human mobility is reshaping ecosystems and creating emerging and re-emerging health risks to population health. Vector Borne diseases (VBDs) are among the most climate and environment sensitive illnesses, with rising temperatures, altered rainfall, climate induced disasters, deforestation, agricultural expansion, and unplanned urban growth modifying vector habitats and human vector interactions. These shifts are altering the incidence, seasonality, and geographic distribution of VBDs. Increasing evidence links climate and land use change to the expansion of dengue and malaria from lowlands to highlands and to more prolonged transmission seasons. Nepal illustrates these dynamics, with high altitude regions warming rapidly and previously protective cold temperatures diminishing. Consequently, diseases such as dengue, malaria, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis, lymphatic filariasis, and visceral leishmaniasis are emerging in mid hills and highlands. This talk synthesizes current evidence, evidence gaps and highlights how a planetary health approach can guide integrated, climate resilient strategies for surveillance, prevention, and control of VBDs in Nepal’s changing environments.

BIO: Dr. Meghnath Dhimal is an Environmental Health Scientist with over 20 years of experience across Nepal, the Maldives, Timor-Leste, Sri Lanka, Germany, and the United States. His work centers on health policy and systems research, burden of disease, global health, and planetary health, with a strong emphasis on environmental health and equity.

He is Chief Research Officer at the Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC) and an Associate Academician at the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). Internationally, he is a Fellow of the International Science Council and a member of the WHO Strategic Technical Advisory Group on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases. He also serves as Visiting Faculty of Environmental Health at Tribhuvan University, Course Director of “Climate and Health in South Asia” at the Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, and is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar for postdoctoral research in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University.

As Principal Investigator, Dr. Dhimal has led numerous projects on environmental health, climate change, non-communicable diseases, neglected tropical diseases, mental health, burden of disease, and health systems in Nepal. He has played a key role in formulating national and international policies and strategic plans in health, population, and environment.

His contributions have been recognized through major awards, including the NAST Young Scientists Award (2015), New Voices in Global Health Programme Winner at the World Health Summit (2017), NHRC Outstanding Health Research Award (2018), and the National Science, Technology, and Innovation Award in the Health Sector (2022). Dr. Dhimal has authored over 400 technical reports and peer-reviewed articles and has extensive collaboration experience with UN agencies and leading global organizations. His publication record is exceptionally strong, placing him among the top 2% of scientists according to the Elsevier–Stanford University global ranking. This is further reflected in his Google Scholar profile, which shows more than 100,000 citations, an H Index of 85, and an i10 index of 195. He holds a PhD in Geo-Sciences (Environmental Health Sciences) from Goethe University Frankfurt (2015) and a Master’s in Environmental Sciences from Tribhuvan University (2004).

HOST: Naveen Vaidya