Dr Ichiro Kawachi

Ichiro Kawachi received his medical degree and PhD from the University of Otago, New Zealand. He has taught at the Harvard School of Public Health since 1992. He is a social epidemiologist with over 30 years of research experience on the topic of social connectedness. His research focuses on diverse cultural contexts, including in Japan (the contribution of social cohesion to disaster resilience), the USA (studies of school social connectedness and youth outcomes), and in Nordic countries (studies of workplace social capital and health outcomes).

Ichiro co-edited the textbooks Social Epidemiology (published by Oxford University Press in 2000), Behavioral Economics and Public Health (with Christina Roberto, Oxford University Press, 2015), and Neighborhoods and Health (2nd edition, Oxford University Press, with Dustin Duncan 2018). He was Editor in Chief of Social Science & Medicine from 2012-22. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine, and an elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He received an honorary Doctor of Science from the Australian National University in 2019.