Supercharging human and planetary health solutions
Two Stanford assistant professors will lead interdisciplinary projects on environment and health with seed funding from the Center for Human and Planetary Health’s Early-Career Research Awards.
From dense urban centers to remote rural communities, human health is deeply intertwined with the natural environment.
Two Stanford faculty members will pursue multi-disciplinary projects to investigate that connection – exploring how issues like livestock management and urban biogenic emissions (emissions generated by natural sources like plants and soil) impact human health and how targeted interventions could benefit people and the planet. Their projects are supported by Human and Planetary Health Early-Career Research Awards, which provide up to $200,000 over two years for high-impact research led by early-career faculty.
“These awards are designed to catalyze solutions at the intersection of health and the environment, while also fostering the next generation of research leadership,” said Allison Phillips, the managing director of the Center for Human and Planetary Health at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. “We are thrilled to support Yuan and Jade as they explore new solutions, build lasting collaborations, and bring fresh perspectives to urgent challenges.”
In rural, low-income settings like Bangladesh, families often share living spaces with livestock like chickens – a dynamic that can facilitate the spread of drug-resistant pathogens that can be harmful to both people and ecosystems. “Antimicrobial resistance now kills more people annually than malaria and HIV combined, making it one of the most urgent global health threats of our time,” said Jade Benjamin-Chung, an assistant professor of epidemiology and population health in the Stanford School of Medicine. “This award enables my research team to address this crisis through a comprehensive One Health approach that examines how human behaviors, housing environments, and livestock practices intersect to drive resistance in vulnerable communities.” One Health is a holistic research approach that acknowledges the compounding effects of climate change, population growth, and disease spread to achieve healthy outcomes, for people, animals, and the environment.
While urban vegetation often provides benefits like cooling and carbon capture, its emissions can also contribute to air pollution in ways that we don’t yet fully understand. Yuan Wang, an assistant professor of Earth system science in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, will comprehensively evaluate the impact of emissions from urban vegetation sources on air quality. The team hopes to develop actionable guidance for urban planners looking to design green spaces that maximize benefits while reducing potential risks to human health in a warming climate. “This research will be my first project addressing the impacts of natural emissions under a changing climate,” said Wang. “The award will empower me to develop more connections with the public health research groups at the Stanford School of Medicine.”
The Human and Planetary Health Early-Career Research Awards are part of the Environmental Venture Projects program at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Since 2004, the program has funded high-risk, high-reward environmental research with the potential to generate transformative solutions.
2025 Projects
Impact of animal management and rural household environments on antimicrobial resistance
Principal Investigator: Jade Benjamin-Chung, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health
Antimicrobial resistance is a critical planetary health threat that endangers human health, biodiversity, and microbial ecosystems. In rural, low-income country settings, unimproved housing, animal cohabitation, unhygienic livestock management, and improper antimicrobial use could foment the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This One Health study will investigate how chicken management practices and household floor materials impact AMR colonization in pregnant mothers and children from birth to age 2 years in rural Bangladesh. One Health is a holistic research approach that acknowledges the compounding effects of climate change, population growth, and disease spread and seeks to achieve healthy outcomes, for people, animals, and the environment. This research aims to inform targeted interventions addressing the nexus of animal husbandry and rural housing to mitigate AMR. The interdisciplinary team will integrate epidemiology, environmental microbiology, and veterinary science and foster international collaboration between scientists in the U.S. and Bangladesh.
Assessing the health impacts of urban biogenic emissions under global warming
Principal Investigator: Yuan Wang, Assistant Professor of Earth System Science
While urban vegetation often provides benefits like cooling and carbon capture, its emissions can also contribute to air pollution in ways that we don’t yet fully understand. Additionally, biogenic emissions (emissions generated by natural sources like plants and soil) are expected to increase substantially under a warming climate, potentially outweighing the gains made through policy-driven emissions reductions. This project will establish an integrative framework to assess the impacts of biogenic emissions on urban air quality and conduct comprehensive assessments of public health risks under a changing climate. The team will develop high-resolution biogenic emissions models under future climate scenarios and improve air pollution and exposure attribution models. The findings will foster awareness of urban greening’s dual benefits and risks, promoting more informed decisions in the context of healthy city planning. New modeling tools from the project will help identify and optimize strategies for urban greening plans. This project will serve as a stepping stone for a broader research agenda aimed at integrating air quality management, public health, and urban ecology to achieve healthier and more sustainable cities.
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