Health Impacts

Identifying and coalescing teams of researchers, educators, practitioners, and advocates commonly concerned with the full set of effects of climate change on human health.

About

Climate change hazards are associated with the prevalence and spread of several infectious diseases; climate-exacerbated non-communicable diseases (NCDs); and a growing mental health crisis linked to the stress, emotional trauma and forced displacement of climate disasters. The Health Impacts stream makes visible experts across the University working on issues and solutions to manage the impacts of climate change on health.

We seek to understand and promote the science (what are the direct and indirect effects of climate change on human health, how can those effects be mitigated?) and practice (how can community and policy efforts be mobilised to create useful change?).

Leads

Iain Walker - Director Of Melbourne Centre For Behaviour Change, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, MDHS

  • Iain is a social psychologist, with broad interests in social and environmental sustainability and in social justice. His research focusses on understanding processes of social and environmental change, with a broader aim of developing a better understanding of the interplay between theory and practice.

George Taiaroa -  Research Fellow, Infectious Diseases, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and MDHS

  • George Taiaroa (PhD, MRSNZ) leads a research program focused on the identification and characterisation of infectious diseases through next-generation sequencing and related approaches. He is a member of the 'Health, Environment, Research and Action (HERA) Collaborative', co-leads a health impacts of climate change research theme, and previously chaired the MDHS Faculty's early career academic group (2020-2022).

Projects