Professor Rifat Atun

Dr. Atun is Professor of Global Health Systems, Vice Dean Non-Degree Education and Innovation at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, and Director of the Health System Innovation Lab at Harvard University. He is the world’s first professor of Health Systems. In 2015-22 he served as the Faculty Chair for the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program.

In 2008-12 he was a member of the Executive Management Team of the Global Fund as the Director of Strategy, Performance and Evaluation where he chaired the panel that made investment decisions for ~$4-5billion each year in 120+ countries. In 2006-13 he was a Professor of International Health Management and Head of the Health Management Group at Imperial College London. He is a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School.

His research focuses on health system performance, system design and innovation. He has published more than 500 articles in leading journals, including NEJM, Nature Medicine, JAMA and Academy of Management Journal, with >100 articles in the Lancet/Lancet family of journals. He has led and participated in 20 Lancet Commissions. In 2020-23 and 2024 he was recognized by Clarivate/Web of Science as one of the World’s Highly Cited Researchers across multiple disciplines. In 2022-24, he was recognized by Stanford University/Elsevier as one of the world's most-influential scientists (top 1% overall among all scientists in all subject areas).

In 2019-20 Dr Atun was a senior advisor to the G20 Presidency and in 2022-23 co-chaired the Task Force on Global Health Security for the G20 Indonesian Presidency. He has advised more than 30 governments, the World Bank, WHO and leading life-science companies on health systems, including Novartis, Hoffmann La-Roche, Merck & Co, and Medtronic. He has been a founder and director of new health technology ventures. He has 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, Norwegian Research Council for Global Health Research and the UK Medical Research Council’s Global Health Group.

Dr Atun has been a member of The Longitude Prize Committee since 2013, one of the largest science prizes in the world. He is a Member of Singapore Ministry of Health Regulatory Advisory Panel, and a Member of Innovation Board for the Ministry of Innovation of Bulgaria

Professor Atun studied medicine at University of London as a Commonwealth Scholar and completed his postgraduate training in family medicine and public health. He obtained an MBA at Imperial College London. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Faculty of Public Health, and the Royal College of General Practitioners in the UK.