blog

It is with regret that we note the death of Paul Epstein, Faculty Member in F1000’s Global Change Ecology section, on November 13, 2011 after a battle against lymphoma.

Dr Epstein, a public health expert and physician at Harvard Medical School, is perhaps best noted for his work linking infectious diseases and climate change. He worked with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to assess the health impacts of climate change. Epstein also devoted much time to speaking publicly on the subject and stirred much political debate.

In an obituary appearing in the New York Times, Al Gore praised him as a researcher and for “his rare ability to communicate the subtleties and complexities of his field.” As further reported in the NY Times, he devoted much of his career as a doctor working in poor communities and as a volunteer in east African countries. He considered it a responsibility to educate the public that climate change is “not just about whales, wolves, and polar bears,” according to his friend and compatriot, Dr Eric Chivian of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard.

Read Paul Epstein’s F1000 evaluations here.