Ashoka University

Dr Poornima Prabhakaran is a former Director of the Centre for Environmental Health and The Varma Centre for Planetary Health at the Public Health Foundation of India.  After graduating from Bangalore Medical College, she pursued her Master’s in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a PhD in Social Medicine from the University of Bristol, UK. Her earlier research focused on a life course approach to chronic diseases. She has recently established a growing portfolio of work in environmental health research spanning epidemiological studies on air pollution, climate change, chemical exposures, water, sanitation and hygiene as well as children’s environmental health. As Senior Research Scientist at the Centre for Chronic Disease Control, she also leads work on climate –smart health care in India, working closely with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Poornima has worked extensively with national and sub-national programs as well as with UN organisations including WHO, UNDP and UNEP and convenes a Consortium for Climate and Health (CONCH) in South East Asia.