Climate Change: A Health Crisis Unveiled

As our climate changes, so does our health. Extreme weather events, rising temperatures, and worsening air quality are no longer just environmental issues—they’re public health crises impacting millions worldwide. How do we address these intersecting challenges, and what evidence guides us toward solutions? 

Join us on November 18 for an insightful discussion led by Prof. Haidong Kan, a renowned expert in environmental epidemiology, alongside Prof. Coraline Goron, Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy at DKU, and Kaidi Liu, an emerging voice in environmental policy from DKU’s Master’s program. Moderated by Prof. Chenkai Wu, Assistant Professor of Global Health at DKU, this session will delve into the science, policies, and paths forward for tackling one of the greatest health challenges of our time.

Symposium Agenda

2:00PM-3:30PM, November 18, 2024
Innovation Building 2071, Duke Kunshan University

2:00-2:10
Opening and Introduction

2:10-2:40
Keynote talk
Climate change and human health: evidence and challenges
Prof. Haidong Kan

• Abstract: A substantial body of scientific evidence supports the assertion that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are the primary driver of ongoing global climate change. This warming trend is associated with an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including heatwaves, floods, and storms. These events have been linked to a variety of adverse health outcomes. In this talk, Prof. Kan will present the scientific evidence supporting this link and discuss future research directions in this field.

2:40-3:10
Panel discussion

• Prof. Haidong Kan
  Professor and Vice Dean at Fudan University’s School of Public Health
• Prof. Coraline Goron
  Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy at Duke Kunshan University
• Kaidi Liu
  Student in the International Master of Environmental Policy (iMEP) Program at Duke Kunshan University

3:10-3:30 Q&A

• Moderated by Chenkai Wu (Assistant Professor of Global Health, DKU)

Meet the Speakers

Prof. Haidong Kan, Professor and Vice Dean at Fudan University’s School of Public Health, and Principal Investigator at the Shanghai Institute of Infectious Disease and Biosecurity, is a leading expert in environmental epidemiology. His research on the health effects of air pollution and climate change has significantly influenced global health policies, including WHO air quality standards. Prof. Kan has published over 190 scientific papers in top journals such as Nature and NEJM, and he serves on the World Health Organization’s Global Air Quality Guidelines Development Expert Group and the National Expert Committee on Eco-Environmental Protection.

Prof. Kan is a member of the Academia Europaea and a Fellow of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE). Among his many honors, Prof. Kan has received the NEJM Best Paper Award, the China Medical Board (CMB) Distinguished Professorship, the Wu Jieping-Paul Janssen Medical Award, and the David Bates Award from the American Thoracic Society. He holds a Ph.D. from Fudan University and completed postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the U.S. His work continues to provide critical evidence for policy-making and air quality standards, supporting WHO and other global health initiatives.

Coraline Goron is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy at Duke Kunshan University. Her research centers on environmental politics with a specific focus on China, both domestically and as an increasingly influential actor in global environmental governance. Prof. Goron obtained a double Ph.D. degree in Political Science from the University of Warwick and the Université Libre de Bruxelles under the aegis of the Erasmus Mundus GEM program. Her Ph.D. thesis received the Marthe Engelborghs-Bertels Prize for Sinology in May 2018. She holds an MA in European politics from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and an LLM in international and Chinese law from the China-EU School of Law at the Chinese University of Political Science and Law in Beijing. Before joining DKU, Coraline was a postdoctoral research fellow funded by the Wiener-Anspach Foundation at the University of Oxford China Center.

Kaidi Liu is a current student in the International Master of Environmental Policy (iMEP) Program at Duke Kunshan University. He is a researcher focusing on Earth System Modelling, with a focus on Land-Atmosphere and Human-Earth Interactions, and Climate Policy. He utilizes Earth System Models to explore climate change dynamics under land-atmosphere coupling, emphasizing the roles of various ecosystems in carbon and nitrogen cycling, as well as their contribution to mitigating atmospheric particulate matter. His research also examines ecosystem feedback to extreme weather and climate events through advanced modeling approaches. Presently, he is developing integrated assessment models to simulate societal responses during energy transitions, aiming to quantify economic losses—such as agricultural and healthcare costs—and broader environmental damages resulting from human-induced emissions.

About “This is Global Health! Monthly Symposium Series”

Since 2014, the Global Health Research Center at Duke Kunshan University has organized a series of global health symposium events, inviting leaders, scientists, and industry experts in the global health field to exchange information on the latest research progress, international and domestic development trends, and global health education and practice. By now the center had successfully hosted 196 seminars. Starting in Fall 2024, the series has been renamed and restructured from the “Aegon-Industrial Global Health Seminar Series” to the “This is Global Health! Monthly Symposium Series,” featuring a new format of panel talks and a vision for greater impact.

We warmly welcome students, scholars, and other DKU members interested in climate change and human health to join us. Let’s uncover the science behind this crisis and discuss a healthier future together!