Ramanan Laxminarayan Appointed as Research Scholar at PEI
Princeton Environmental Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Ramanan Laxminarayan to Research Scholar in the Princeton Environmental Institute.
Dr. Laxminarayan is an expert in the field of economic-epidemiology, the application of economics and disease modeling to understand the role of individual and institutional incentives in the spread of infectious disease. He is widely recognized as a leader in the three-way integration of economics, policy, and infectious disease dynamics, and is the leading authority on the economics of antibiotic resistance. He has been Visiting Research Scholar and Visiting Lecturer in Economics and the Princeton Environmental Institute since 2005.
“Some of the biggest questions facing the world lie at the intersection of the environment, human health and economic development. I am delighted to be tackling these questions at Princeton with an exceptional group of scholars in each of these disciplines,” said Dr. Laxminarayan.
The author/co-author of five books and over 50 articles, Dr. Laxminarayan’s research has appeared in leading journals including Health Affairs, Journal of Human Resources, Lancet, Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
Dr. Laxminarayan is an active participant in the Health Grand Challenge, including a role as Principal Investigator along with Simon Levin for their project, Multi-disciplinary Program on Disease Management: Drug Resistance and Social Norms. With Bryan Grenfell, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, he teaches ENV 304 Disease Ecology, Economics, and Public Policy. He mentors undergraduate internships and senior theses. He has several additional projects including initiatives supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Laxminarayan has worked with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank on evaluating malaria treatment policy, vaccination strategies, the economic burden of tuberculosis, and control of non-communicable diseases. In 2003-04, he served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on the Economics of Antimalarial Drugs and subsequently helped create the Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria, a novel financing mechanism for antimalarials.
Dr. Laxminarayan founded and currently serves as the director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy (CDDEP) in Washington, DC. He is an adjunct professor at the Indian Institutes of Public Health in New Delhi, India, and a Senior Fellow with Resources for the Future, a position he has held since 1999.
As Research Scholar at PEI, Dr. Laxminarayan will support PEI through research, teaching, and mentoring of students. He is expected to continue co-teaching Disease Ecology, Economics, and Public Policy. He will retain affiliations with CDDEP, Resources for the Future, and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).
Dr. Laxminarayan received his undergraduate degree in instrumentation from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, India, a Masters in Public Health in epidemiology and a PhD in economics from the University of Washington in Seattle.