Paul Edward Farmer

Dr. Paul Edward Farmer was the Kolokotrones University Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School; Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Chief Strategist and Co-founder of Partners in Health; and Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General on Community-Based Medicine. Farmer developed a community-based clinical model for high-quality medical care in extremely poor settings and created a new model for training health professionals in global health. As one a member of one of the first classes in Harvard University’s joint MD/Anthropology PhD program, Farmer had a long history of linking ethnographic and qualitative research to robust quantitative research, including laboratory data. He contributed extensively to clinical literature in management of complex infectious diseases, particularly multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and HIV/AIDS. His work through his organization Partners in Health was the subject of Tracy Kidder’s acclaimed book Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World.

Farmer received extensive acclaim for his work both inside and outside of academia. His numerous accolades included a MacArthur Fellowship, the Heinz Award in the Human Condition, the American Medical Association’s Dr. Nathan Davis International Award in Medicine, the Sandor Teszler Award for Moral Courage and Service to Mankind, and the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in addition to his membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He wrote numerous books including The Uses of Haiti, AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame, Haiti After the Earthquake, Reimagining Public Health: An Introduction, and To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation. His scientific articles have been published in Lancet, Lancet Global Health, Science, and World Journal of Surgery.