Gaurab Basu, MD, MPH is a primary care physician and Director of Education and Policy at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE) at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is an Instructor at Harvard Medical School (HMS). His work focuses on the intersection of climate change, global health equity, human rights, medical education, and public policy.

Dr. Basu has developed and evaluated numerous innovative health equity curricular programs. He is the director of the HMS Climate Change and Health curricular theme, co-founded the CHA Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy, co-directed the HMS social medicine curriculum, and co-directs the Climate Health Organizing Fellowship. He serves on the education committee of the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University. Dr. Basu has received the inaugural HMS Equity, Social Justice and Advocacy Faculty Award and the HMS Charles McCabe Faculty Prize in Excellence. He has been a HMS Curtis Prout Academy Fellow and a Harvard Macy Scholar.

In 2021, Dr. Basu was named to the Grist 50 list of national climate leaders. In 2018, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation named him a “Culture of Health Leader.” He serves on the Implementation Advisory Committee in the Massachusetts Governor’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. He was a part of the city of Cambridge Mayor’s Climate Crisis Working Group and its Net-Zero Climate Task Force. His work has been featured by NPR’s All Things Considered, The Boston Globe, Scientific American, the BMJ, and Grist, among others.

Dr. Basu previously worked for numerous global NGOs including the Gates Institute, Partners in Health, the Child in Need Institute and Last Mile Health. He is on the board of directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Weather Channel’s climate program “Pattrn,” and on the advisory council of the Environmental League of Massachusetts. He served as one of the clinical leads of Cambridge Health Alliance’s COVID Community Management clinical services during the pandemic.

He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, with a bachelor of arts in international relations. He received his medical degree from the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. Dr. Basu was a Sommer Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he studied human rights and received his masters in public health. He completed his internal medicine residency training at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School.

Kids playing in fountain

The 2023 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change: Policy Brief for the U.S.

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Person drinking water on a hot day

How to protect yourself from the extreme heat this week

As temperatures soar, doctors are using resources from our Climate Resilience for Frontline Clinics Toolkit to help patients manage extreme heat.

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Highway traffic in front of a blazing sun

From rapid cooling body bags to ‘prescriptions’ for AC, doctors prepare for a future of extreme heat

Drs. Basu and Dresser share our extreme heat toolkit and heat alert system to protect patients' health during extreme heat.

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Screenshot of NBC Boston story shows Dr. Basu listening to a patient's heart

Heat toolkit helps doctors and patients deal with temperature-related health risks

Our heat toolkit is helping doctors and patients deal with temperature-related health risks.

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A summer day on the Charles River Esplanade, Boston, MA

Boston's summer heat is an issue of racial equity. 'Greening' our city is one solution

Gaurab writes in Cognoscenti about heat's impact on health equity and gun violence and advocates for the community health benefits that come with investing in tree canopies.

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Wildfire smoke

How smoke blanketing Northeast from Canadian wildfires can impact our mental health

Doctors see an increase in anxiety and depression as people experience the trauma of wildfire smoke.

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Eggs and vegetables are cooked in a pan on an induction stove.

We need to get fossil gas out of homes, for the climate and our health

Our Health Equity Fellow Dr. Gaurab Basu explains what drove him to electrify his home.

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Child blowing their nose

Sunny highs to shivering cold: Wild weather swings take a health toll

Check out what Drs. Aaron Bernstein and Gaurab Basu have to say about the health impacts of wild weather.

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Cardboard sign with the words "There is no planet B."

Amid devastating climate report and heat waves coming our way, we need courage

Dr. Gaurab Basu offers guidance on how to courageously fight climate change as an individual.

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Doctor in operating room

The climate crisis is making us sick. Doctors need better training to treat it.

Climate-informed clinicians can keep their patients healthier in a changing climate.

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