Researcher
Univeristy of Umeå, Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden
Jan C. Semenza is an environmental epidemiologist with over 35 years of experience in climate change and health research and a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR6 report: Chapter 7; Health, Wellbeing and the Changing Structure of Communities.
He conducted his PhD at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, UK in molecular cell biology where he isolated the receptor for heat-shock proteins, which was nominated “the receptor of the year” at the time. This receptor is used intracellularly to sort heat-shock proteins from proteins excreted from the cell and is found in all eukaryotic cells.
Subsequently, he obtained an MPH in environmental health with a focus on toxicology from UC Berkeley where his research focused on biomarkers of exposure. He applied molecular epidemiology to investigate the link between benzene exposure and leukaemia and explored gene-environment interactions in kidney cancer. Genetic predisposition increases the risk of certain environmental exposures according to specific susceptibility markers. These markers are found at high frequency in the general population but display a relatively low penetrance where the trait is not expressed in individuals in the absence of environmental exposures.
Besides his experimental research, he has also conducted a number of high-profile field investigations. He was an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an elite training program in outbreak investigations, at the Centre of Disease Prevention and Control in Atlanta, U.S. He lead the CDC response to a record-breaking heat wave in July 1995 that killed more than 700 people in Chicago. With a staff of over 80 government employees, social workers and students he conducted one of the first and largest field investigations of this kind in the urban neighbourhoods of Chicago and described the factors contributing to this calamity. He elucidated the underlying environmental, societal, and behavioural causes of this environmental disaster. The findings of the study were immediately incorporated into an action plan for the city of Chicago with detailed measures to prevent future heat-related deaths. The heat wave emergency response plan for Chicago became a blueprint for other climate change adaptation policies in other metropolitan areas and he was subsequently awarded a Certificate of Commendation by the City of Chicago for this investigation.
As part of his work with the regional offices of World Health Organization (WHO) including EURO, PAHO, and EMRO, he provided technical and scientific advice to the countries within their region. He conducted public health projects in Uzbekistan, Sudan, Egypt, Denmark, Brazil, and Haiti through CDC, WHO, US Agency for International Development (USAID), and non-governmental organizations.
He 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 Master Program of Public Health. Over the course of 15 years, he led the work on infectious diseases and climate change at The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) which was translated into policy interventions across Europe. He investigated climatic drivers of vector, food, and waterborne diseases and devised novel surveillance and early warning systems. He devised a tool that has been operationalized at ECDC to monitor sea surface temperature and salinity in marine environments to assess the suitability of vibrio infections, a potentially fatal disease. More recently, he helped identify spring temperature as an early warning signal for West Nile virus infections, that are projected to expand significantly under climate change scenarios, particularly in Western Europe. Currently, he is the co-lead of Working Group 1 and 2 of the Lancet Countdown in Europe and a contributor to the Global Lancet Countdown, published annually in the Lancet. His research has also been published in high-impact journals such as Cell, New England J of Medicine, Lancet, Lancet ID, Science, Nature Climate Change, Nature Immunology, and in several books.
He is associated with the Department of Sustainable Health at Umeå University in Sweden and Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
114 - Climate Change and Infectious Diseases: A View From the Melting Arctic
Friday, October 18, 2024
10:30 AM – 11:45 AM US PT
271 - Building resiliency to address climate sensitive infectious disease
Friday, October 18, 2024
11:20 AM – 11:45 AM US PT