Casey Dai
Casey Dai, SM’25 is a second-year master’s student in the department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Originally from Northern California, Casey first got interested in climate change and sustainability after the 2017 Tubbs Fire swept through her hometown. Today, Casey’s research at Harvard touches upon issues of ecological change and environmental justice, the socio-cultural dynamics of infectious disease, and health systems resiliency. Her master’s thesis looks to characterize the role of climate in the spatial pattern and intensity of dengue transmission in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Additionally, Casey is a fellow in the Biodiversity division of the United States Agency of International Development and a student ambassador of Harvard Chan’s C-CHANGE, where she’s had the opportunity to contribute to research at the intersection of climate change, extreme weather events, and physicians’ capacities to prepare frontline clinics to serve vulnerable communities. This past year, Casey was part of the C-CHANGE delegation at the 2024 Planetary Health Alliance Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Going forward, Casey hopes to work in the field of global environmental health research and practice. When she’s not wading through shapefiles, Casey can be found nose-deep in a book (currently: Interpreter of Maladies), whizzing around town on her bike, or moonlighting as an amateur landscape architect.
The Salata Institute
The Salata Institute supports interdisciplinary research that leads to real-world action, including high-risk/high-reward projects by researchers already working in the climate area and new endeavors that make it easier for Harvard scholars, who have not worked on climate problems, to do so. Faculty interested in the Climate Research Clusters program should note an upcoming deadline for concepts on April 1, 2024.