Bhargavi Rao

Dr. Bhargavi Rao serves as Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health and Development within the Faculty of Public Health and Policy at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She concurrently holds a part-time strategic research role at Médecins Sans Frontières (Operational Centre Amsterdam) as OCA Strategic Lead for Research and malaria/infectious diseases specialist, and maintains an honorary clinical position with UKSHA.

Her research focuses on infectious disease control in humanitarian crises, with expertise in malaria, surveillance systems, and climate-conflict-disease interactions. Key initiatives include co-directing LSHTM's Malaria Centre, co-leading the JI-RISE project (Jameel Institute Real Time Intelligent Support for Emergencies) with Imperial College London for Gaza crisis modeling, and developing early-warning systems for disease outbreaks. She serves on the steering committee of the Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre.

Rao supervises 5 PhD/DrPH students investigating infectious diseases and climate impacts in humanitarian settings. Her teaching contributions include co-directing the Distance-Learning Health in Humanitarian Crises programme, co-organizing the Public Health Information in Humanitarian Crises module, and lecturing on Conflict & Health, malaria, and pandemic response.

Her publication portfolio demonstrates leadership in anticipatory action frameworks, mass drug administration during pandemics, and climate-sensitive disease outbreak modeling. Recent work emphasizes integrating disease surveillance with conflict and climate data to improve humanitarian response.

Professional leadership includes co-editing the revised Conflict and Health textbook and developing evidence frameworks for mortality estimation in crises. She maintains active operational engagement through ongoing fieldwork with MSF while advancing academic research at LSHTM.