Christopher Golden
Primary Faculty

Christopher Golden

Associate Professor of Nutrition and Planetary Health

Nutrition

Other Positions

Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Environmental Health

Environmental Health

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Global Health and Population

Global Health and Population

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Director of Program on Nutrition and Planetary Health

Nutrition

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Director of MPH Program in Nutrition

Nutrition

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health


Overview

I am an ecologist and epidemiologist interested in the interface of ecosystem service provisioning and human health, specifically in the context of global trends in biodiversity loss and ecosystem transformation. Since 1999, I have been conducting ecological and public health research in Madagascar. Most broadly, I am interested in local people’s dependence on natural resources for obtaining adequate health. This interest has led to various studies into connections between marine and terrestrial wildlife consumption and the incidence of micronutrient deficiencies, the importance of botanical ethnomedicines and geophagy to local health, and the eco-epidemiology of malaria and the human microbiome given current trends in biodiversity loss and land use change. Beyond Madagascar, I have been leading a collaborative research program that evaluates the connections among climate change, fisheries management and ocean governance, and food security and human nutrition in coastal populations around the world. Given trends in mass fisheries declines, coral bleaching, and raising sea surface temperatures that will drive fisheries away from the Equator and toward the Poles, food-insecure populations across the globe will be deprived of a critical nutritional resource. Our group tackles this subject by modeling potential health futures and determining what types of interventions may be able to buffer against these impacts.

MPH, 05/2010, Epidemiology
UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

PhD, 05/2011, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

BA, 06/2005, Environmental Conservation
Harvard College, Cambridge, MA

Post-doc, 06/2013, Planetary Health
Harvard University Center for the Environment, Cambridge, MA


Bibliography

Periodic Table of Food Initiative for generating biomolecular knowledge of edible biodiversity.

Jarvis A, Gallo-Franco J, Portilla J, German B, Debouck D, Rajasekharan M, Khoury C, Herforth A, Ahmed S, Tohme J, Arnaud E, Golden CD, Dawid C, de Haan S, DeClerck F, Feskens EJM, Fogliano V, Fritz G, Hald C, Hall R, Hart R, Henry A, Huang S, Hunter D, Imanbaeva B, Lowe A, Turner NJ, Jia G, Johnson E, Kalaiah G, Karboune S, Klade S, La Cerva GR, Lal V, Levy AA, Longvah T, Maeda-Yamamoto M, Minnis P, Nuti M, Octavio M, Osorio C, Pawera L, Peter S, Prasad R, Quave C, Shapiro HY, Sreeman S, Srichamnong W, Steiner R, Turdieva M, Ulian T, van Andel T, Wang R, Weissgold L, Yan J, de la Parra J.

Nat Food. 2024 Mar 08. PMID: 38459394

The state of food systems worldwide in the countdown to 2030.

Schneider KR, Fanzo J, Haddad L, Herrero M, Moncayo JR, Herforth A, Remans R, Guarin A, Resnick D, Covic N, Béné C, Cattaneo A, Aburto N, Ambikapathi R, Aytekin D, Barquera S, Battersby J, Beal T, Molina PB, Cafiero C, Campeau C, Caron P, Conforti P, Damerau K, Di Girolamo M, DeClerck F, Dewi D, Elouafi I, Fabi C, Foley P, Frazier TJ, Gephart J, Golden C, Fischer CG, Hendriks S, Honorati M, Huang J, Kennedy G, Laar A, Lal R, Lidder P, Loken B, Marshall Q, Masuda YJ, McLaren R, Miachon L, Muñoz H, Nordhagen S, Qayyum N, Saisana M, Suhardiman D, Sumaila UR, Cullen MT, Tubiello FN, Vivero-Pol JL, Webb P, Wiebe K.

Nat Food. 2023 Dec. 4(12):1090-1110. PMID: 38114693

Reproductive inequality in humans and other mammals.

Ross CT, Hooper PL, Smith JE, Jaeggi AV, Smith EA, Gavrilets S, Zohora FT, Ziker J, Xygalatas D, Wroblewski EE, Wood B, Winterhalder B, Willführ KP, Willard AK, Walker K, von Rueden C, Voland E, Valeggia C, Vaitla B, Urlacher S, Towner M, Sum CY, Sugiyama LS, Strier KB, Starkweather K, Major-Smith D, Shenk M, Sear R, Seabright E, Schacht R, Scelza B, Scaggs S, Salerno J, Revilla-Minaya C, Redhead D, Pusey A, Purzycki BG, Power EA, Pisor A, Pettay J, Perry S, Page AE, Pacheco-Cobos L, Oths K, Oh SY, Nolin D, Nettle D, Moya C, Migliano AB, Mertens KJ, McNamara RA, McElreath R, Mattison S, Massengill E, Marlowe F, Madimenos F, Macfarlan S, Lummaa V, Lizarralde R, Liu R, Liebert MA, Lew-Levy S, Leslie P, Lanning J, Kramer K, Koster J, Kaplan HS, Jamsranjav B, Hurtado AM, Hill K, Hewlett B, Helle S, Headland T, Headland J, Gurven M, Grimalda G, Greaves R, Golden CD, Godoy I, Gibson M, Mouden CE, Dyble M, Draper P, Downey S, DeMarco AL, Davis HE, Crabtree S, Cortez C, Colleran H, Cohen E, Clark G, Clark J, Caudell MA, Carminito CE, Bunce J, Boyette A, Bowles S, Blumenfield T, Beheim B, Beckerman S, Atkinson Q, Apicella C, Alam N, Mulder MB.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023 05 30. 120(22):e2220124120. PMID: 37216525


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