Dr. Harsha Thirumurthy named CHIBE’s Inaugural Endowed Chair
A message from CHIBE Director Dr. Kevin Volpp
With deep gratitude for the extraordinary generosity of the Haas Family, CHIBE is establishing its first endowed chair, marking a significant milestone for the Center. The Chair will be called the Founders Professorship of Population Health.
Dr. Harsha Thirumurthy has been selected to be the inaugural Chair recipient, and this has been ratified by Dean Jon Epstein and the Provost.
Dr. Thirumurthy is an internationally renowned scholar in global health whose work focuses on reducing the burden of disease in low and middle-income countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. He has done groundbreaking work on HIV prevention, including demonstrating the effectiveness of HIV self-test distribution and of various financial incentives at reducing the incidence of HIV. In addition, he has shown that important policy initiatives, such as the President’s Malaria Initiative and poverty-alleviating financial incentives, are successful in achieving the ultimate public health goal – reducing mortality.
His productivity has been impressive, with more than 175 peer-reviewed publications and numerous awards for his work including a top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Award for a paper published in Nature from the Clinical Research Forum, the Lewinter-Suskind Global Health Faculty Prize at Penn, and being named (along with Dr. Alison Buttenheim) a top 100 finalist for the MacArthur Foundation 100&Change Competition. He has been an extremely well-funded investigator and is current MPI of 5 R01s. His work has influenced global policy recommendations as, for example, the World Health Organization incorporated self-test distribution via sexual contacts into its 2019 HIV prevention recommendations.
Dr. Thirumurthy has been an innovator on a number of levels. With Dr. Buttenheim and colleagues at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, he co-founded Indlela, the first behavioral economics nudge unit in Africa; Indlela has now transitioned entirely to African leadership. With Guy Grossman of the Penn Department of Political Science, he co-founded the Penn Development Research Institute, which has become an important convener of the development economics community at Penn.
Dr. Thirumurthy has also served on the CHIBE steering committee for many years, and as Associate Director for Global Health has led CHIBE’s efforts in global health. In addition, he has served capably as Chief of the Health Policy Division of Medical Ethics and Health Policy since 2023.
Dr. Thirumurthy received a BA in Economics and Physics from Oberlin and a PhD in Economics from Yale. He joined the faculty at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health, where he rose to Associate Professor with Tenure.
We were fortunate to recruit him to Penn in 2017, where he has proved himself to be an eminent scholar, a valued colleague, and an outstanding leader.