Paul R. Epstein, M.D., M.P.H. is Associate Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School (http://chge.med.harvard.edu) and is a medical doctor trained in tropical public health. Paul has worked in medical, teaching and research capacities in Africa, Asia and Latin America and in 1993, coordinated an eight-part series on Health and Climate Change for the British medical journal, Lancet. He has worked with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to assess the health impacts of climate change and develop health applications of climate forecasting and remote sensing.

Dr. Epstein also coordinated Climate Change Futures: Health, Ecological and Economic Dimensions, an international project with Swiss Re and the United Nations Development Program assessing the risks and opportunities presented by a changing climate. He has also prepared the report Healthy Solutions for the Low Carbon Economy: Guidelines for Investors, Insurers and Policy Makers that examines the "stabilization wedges" through the lens of health and ecological safety.

Stemming from a multi-sectoral conference on coal held in Washington, DC in October, 2009, a publication – “Full Cost Accounting for the Life Cycle of Coal’ – will appear in the Annals of the Academy of Sciences in January, 2011. In addition, an illustrated brochure summarizing the findings -- "Mining Coal, Mounting Costs: Assessing the Life Cycle Costs of Coal" -- will also be available in January.

Dr. Epstein received recognition for his contributions to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. His forthcoming book with Dan Ferber, Changing Planet, Changing Health, will be published by the University of California Press in 2011.

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