Subhrendu K. Pattanayak Joins DGHI as New Member

We are pleased to welcome Subhrendu K. Pattanayak as a new DGHI Member.

Dr. Pattanayak has a joint appointment as associate professor of public policy studies with the Sanford Institute for Public Policy, and associate professor of environmental economics with the Nicholas School of the Environment.

He comes to Duke from RTI International’s division of Public Health and the Environment, but he is returning to familiar territory, having earned his PhD at Duke in 1997.

His research has transitioned from a study of forest ecosystem services to a focus on the economics of environmental health, including, as he says, “the big three (diarrhea, malaria, and respiratory infections) and their main behavioral modifiers (toilets, taps, nets, and stoves).”  He notes that his work also touches on gender and health, since the main actors in the efforts to change behavior around toilets, taps, nets and stoves are women.

Before coming to Duke, Pattanayak was as an institute fellow and senior economist at RTI International, where he built a research program on water, sanitation and health in South Asia. He was also a research associate professor at North Carolina State University’s College of Natural Resources, where most recently he advised doctoral students working on environmental health topics.

Pattanayak will teach teach Duke’s first global environmental health course.

The full list of DGHI faculty is available here.