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 at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE). He is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Global Health & Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His work focuses on the intersection of climate change, global health equity, human rights, medical education, and public policy. He practices internal medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance.
Dr. Basu has developed and evaluated numerous innovative health equity curricular programs. He is the faculty director of the HMS Climate Change, Environment 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 Harvard University Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability Standing Committee on Climate Education. Dr. Basu 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 selected him to their Culture of Health Leadership fellowship. Dr. Basu advises the Massachusetts Governor’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) as a member of the Implementation Advisory Committee and the Climate Science Advisory Panel. He is 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 advisory council for the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, the Environmental League of Massachusetts, and the Weather Channel’s climate program “Pattrn.” He is an expert advisor to the non profit Rewiring America. He previously was on the board of directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility and 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 UVM. 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.
Allergy season sucks, and climate change is making it worse
What you can do to mitigate your symptoms as the season continues.
Statement from Harvard Chan C-CHANGE’s Dr. Gaurab Basu on new EPA power plant regulations
Dr. Gaurab Basu shares a statement in response to EPA's new power plant regulations.
Statement from Harvard Chan C-CHANGE’s Dr. Gaurab Basu on new EPA vehicle pollution standards
Dr. Gaurab Basu shares a statement in response to EPA's new vehicle pollution standards.
Study: Teaching community organizing principles to health professionals significantly increases their capacity to take climate action
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
