Rifat Atun

Biography

Dr. Rifat Atun is the Dean for Education and Innovation at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is also the Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership and Professor of Global Health Systems at Harvard University. He is first tenured professor of health systems at Harvard and the world. He directs the Health Systems Innovation Lab and the Advanced Learning Academy at Harvard Chan.

In 2008 to 2012, Dr. Atun served on the Executive Management Team of The Global Fund in Geneva, as director of strategy, performance and evaluation. He has advised the World Bank, World Health Organization and G20, and governments worldwide. He served as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine Committee on Health Systems, and the Advisory Boards of WHO Research Centre for Health Development in Japan, the Norwegian Research Council’s Program for Global Health Research, and the UK Medical Research Council’s Global Health Group. He is a Member of Singapore Ministry of Health Regulatory Advisory Panel. An entrepreneur and investor, he advises major life sciences companies and start-ups.

His research explores health system performance and innovation. With more than 500 publications in leading journals, he was recognized in 2020-2025 by Clarivate/Web of Science as one of the World’s Highly Cited Researchers across multiple disciplines, and in 2021-2025 by Stanford University/Elsevier as one of the world's most-influential scientists.

He studied medicine at University of London as a Commonwealth Scholar, where he completed his postgraduate medical training. He holds an MBA from Imperial College London and is a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians in the UK. 

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