Matthew Chersich is Research Professor in the Wits Planetary Health Division, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and Research Fellow at Public Health and Primary Care, School of Medicine, Trinity College, Ireland. He has worked on public health research across Africa for around 20 years, and with WHO and other international organisations. After medical school at the University of Witwatersrand, he studied public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and doctoral studies at Ghent University, Belgium. He is leading the NIH HEAT Center on data science and climate change, as well as Wellcome Trust grants that examine the biological pathways mediating heat effects in pregnancy, and the effectiveness of adaptation interventions.