Professor Prabhat Jha has been a key figure in epidemiology and economics of global health for the past decade. He is the University of Toronto Endowed Professor in Disease Control and Canada Research Chair at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and the founding Director of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.
Professor Jha is a lead investigator of the Million Death Study in India, which quantifies the causes of premature mortality in over 1 million homes from 1997-2014 and which examines the contribution of key risk factors such as tobacco, alcohol, diet and environmental exposures. He is Co-investigator of the Disease Control Priorities Network and the author of several influential books on tobacco control, including two that helped enable a global treaty on tobacco control, now signed by over 160 countries.
Prior to founding CGHR, Professor Jha served as Senior Scientist for the World Health Organization, where he co-led the work on health and poverty for the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health. Earlier, he headed the World Bank team responsible for developing the Second National HIV/AIDS Control Program in India. His advisory work has included the Government of South Africa on its national health insurance plan, and the United States Institute of Medicine on global health.
