South African Medical Research Council

Chief Specialist Scientist

Caradee Wright (PhD in Preventive and Social Medicine) is a Chief Specialist Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council leading the Climate and Health Research Programme. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pretoria and the University of Johannesburg. Her research is in environmental health epidemiology to understand climate change and air pollution impacts on human health and well-being to inform interventions and policy development in Africa. Her research fields also include solar ultraviolet radiation dosimetry and skin cancer prevention. Dr Wright has published more than 150 research articles in peer-reviewed accredited journals. Dr Wright was a Committee member of the World Health Organization Air Quality Guidelines Committee, an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report 6 Africa Chapter Author, a Chapter Lead Author of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) / Stockholm Environment Institute African Assessment on Climate Change and Human Health and an author of several recently published UNEP reports. Dr Wright is currently Technical Advisor to the World Health Organization (Air Quality, Ethics), the International Livestock Research Institute (One Health), and the Health Effects Institute (Global Health Oversight Committee); and a Review Lead for the National Institute of Health (NIH) / Nature Collection on Data Science for Health in Africa (Environmental Health / Climate Change). Dr Wright was recently named as one of the 2024 NIH Climate and Health Scholars and is working with the Fogarty International Centre.