Planetary Health Colloquium – December

The Departments of Environmental Health, Global Health and Population, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, and Nutrition warmly welcome Lucas Garibaldi and Matthew Smith as the third speakers of the Planetary Health Colloquium Series. Dr. Frank Hu  from Harvard School of Public Health will be the discussant. A recording of this event can be found here: https://harvard.zoom.us/rec/share/_TZI_95DHomz1-alsNQ0HfvX2ygV5x_jDfPmkvbzg9x_DFMrCoQ3jkstI6GDjurB.uwHQg_pj3x_zcooi?startTime=1638381594000 

Lucas Garibaldi, PhD

Lucas Garibaldi, PhD has worked in agroecology for more than 20 years. This path started with a social vocation, performing fieldwork in rural communities mainly from Santiago del Estero and Formosa (Argentina). He pursued doctoral and postdoctoral studies in ecology applied to agricultural and forestry systems. Throughout his career, he has incorporated various ecological and socioeconomic aspects aimed at promoting research and the development of technologies for the sustainable use of natural resources. His passion for bees dates back to high school, and later he integrated them as a focal point of his agroecology work. As a researcher, he has had the opportunity to collaborate with hundreds of professionals associated with different types of institutions worldwide (universities, NGOs, companies, civil associations, among others). Many of the studies that have resulted from these interactions are published in scientific journals of great recognition and worldwide reach (for example, 5 articles in Science, 1 in Nature, 2 in Nature Ecology & Evolution, 3 in PNAS, 3 in Ecology Letters, 5 in TREE). 

Professor Garibaldi has been Coordinator Lead Author (CLA), scientific advisor (consultant), and author for several international organizations, including FAO and IPBES. With his research work, he has developed multiple ways to support political decisions and new legislation with scientific information: for example, public reports, texts for politicians (Summary for Policy Makers), and workshops. Among other activities, he has participated in the drafting of various bills, such as the law for ‘Minimum budgets for biodiversity in cultivated environments’ (File number 4543/17 in the National Senate, Argentina). He is the President of the ‘Pollination and Bee Flora’ Commission of the International Federation of Beekeeping Associations (Apimondia) where his studies contribute to developing knowledge about the role of bees as pollinators and the importance of protecting their habitats.

Matthew Smith, PhD

​​Dr. Matthew Smith is a research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. His work uses global models of major environmental changes — shrinking pollinator populations, as well as rising CO2 and dwindling wild fish stocks — to quantify their impacts on diets, nutrition, and health. At the core of these efforts is the Global Expanded Nutrient Supply (GENuS) dataset, of which he is the chief architect: a publicly accessible dataset which estimates the macro- and micronutrients provided by all foods in the diet broken down by country and age-sex group.  He holds a Ph.D. in geological sciences from the University of Washington and a B.S. in geology from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Frank Hu, MD, MPH, PhD

Dr. Frank Hu is Chair of Department of Nutrition, Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He serves as Co-director of the Program in Obesity Epidemiology and Prevention at Harvard and Director of Boston Nutrition and Obesity Research Center Epidemiology and Genetics Core. His major research interests include epidemiology and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases through diet and lifestyle; gene-environment interactions; nutritional metabolomics; and nutrition transitions and cardiometabolic diseases in low- and middle-income countries. He served on the IOM Committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease, the AHA/ACC Obesity Guideline Expert Panel, and the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, USDA/HHS. He has served on the editorial boards of Lancet Diabetes & EndocrinologyDiabetes Care, and Clinical Chemistry. Dr. Hu was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015.