1/28/25: Seydina Fall’s Vision for Planetary Health Cities
Seydina Fall, Faculty Co-director for JHIPH’s Innovation and Implementation program, embarked on travels across Asia that deepened his global perspective on urban revitalization.
A New Institute for Planetary Health at Johns Hopkins University
Planetary Health research has taught us that our dismantling of nature’s intricate and fragile web is an urgent threat to human health and wellbeing. “Environmental” problems—climate change; biodiversity loss; pollution of air, water, and soil; terrestrial and marine system degradation—are expanding at a pace and scale that demands urgent action and transformative innovation across nearly every dimension of human activity from food and energy systems to manufacturing and the built environment. The Institute for Planetary Health was created to build a bridge connecting JHU’s vibrant community of faculty, staff, and students to work together in accelerating discovery and activating solutions to safeguard health on a rapidly changing planet.
Learn More about the InstituteWhat does the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health do?
The Institute is advancing Planetary Health research, education, policy, and practice across Johns Hopkins University. By bringing faculty and students together across disciplines and divisions to work on collaborative projects, the Institute will help the University play a lead role in moving the field of Planetary Health forward. We envision numerous workstreams as diverse as designing Planetary Health cities, working with the Indigenous health community to explore the intersections with Indigenous determinants of health, and working with nurses and physicians to green health care and communicate the Planetary Health emergency to patients, colleagues, and communities. In education, the Institute will help integrate Planetary Health competencies into nursing, medical, public health, and undergraduate curricula. Collaborations with the policy community at Hopkins and the engineering, AI, and data science communities will lead to innovations in policy, technology, and practice.
Learn MoreWhat does the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health offer?
The Institute for Planetary Health removes obstacles to cross-disciplinary collaboration. We plan to offer support for workshops and convenings (including at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington DC), development of research proposals, new Planetary Health course development, and connection to the global Planetary Health community through the Planetary Health Alliance. In addition, we will organize monthly dinner seminars for affiliated faculty and special events and retreats on Planetary Health topics. Over time, we seek to provide seed grants for research and support for postdoctoral fellows connected to Planetary Health research hubs.
Learn More About Our ProgramsNews
1/16/25: Bloomberg Distinguished Professorship Cluster in Planetary Health
A new BDP cluster aims to strengthen and complement scholarship in Planetary Health at Johns Hopkins University.
12/19/24: Special Report— Planetary Health in Asia
Read a detailed report on JHIPH's and the Planetary Health Alliance's travels to Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia.
10/20/24: JHIPH’s Strategic Plan Now Open for Comments
JHIPH is seeking feedback on its draft strategic plan. We invite all voices to share their thoughts and help shape the future of our work!
10/8/24: JHIPH Faculty Director, Chris Lemon, on Engineering With Nature Podcast
JHIPH faculty Chris Lemon is featured in two new episodes of the EWN Podcast.
10/7/24: Tackling the Flood Insurance Crisis with JHIPH Faculty Director, Seydina Fall
JHIPH faculty Seydina Fall is featured in a new article on Fast Company.
Get Involved
As a member of our community, you’ll receive updates on the latest news, events, and insights related to the growing Planetary Health movement at Johns Hopkins University and beyond.
Apply for a Graduate Fellowship with the Ecological Design Collective
The Ecological Design Collective (EDC) is hiring two graduate student Fellows for the 2025–26 academic year.
We're hiring! Please check out JHIPH’s open positions and share them with your networks.
JHIPH collaborates with a range of student-led groups focused on Planetary Health across JHU.
Connect with the Global Community
Join worldwide networks of changemakers dedicated to advancing planetary health.
Stay in the loop! Join our mailing list to receive exclusive updates on upcoming events, special opportunities, and exciting initiatives organized by the Institute.
Events
3/4/25: March Planetary Health Dinner Recap
In March, members of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health community gathered to explore how Planetary Health can inform research and interventions for emerging infectious diseases, focusing on vector-borne diseases.
Join us for a discussion panel with representatives from Blue Water Baltimore, Friends of the Jones Falls, Friends of Stony Run, and Chesapeake Bay Trust.
3/14/25: Feeling Streams: Welcoming Sorrow in a Time of (Climate) Chaos
Join us for a workshop with artist, somatic movement educator, and therapist Michele Minnick.
3/3/25: Futures in the Face of Ruin: An Environmental Humanities Conversation
How might we connect these relics of our time with the natural and cultural life of other places as we work to reforest our own imaginations? Register to attend Futures in the Face of Ruin to reflect on such questions in the environmental humanities.
2/6/25: February Planetary Health Dinner Recap
Members of the JHIPH community came together to explore a key question: How can we develop core principles for Planetary Health Cities that foster thriving urban communities while safeguarding our planet?
Please join the Johns Hopkins University School of Education for a talk exploring the practical, moral, and pedagogical reasons why it makes sense to focus on adaptation, resilience, and transformation (ART).