Guest Lecture Marsilius Lecture: Undernutrition, Obesity, Climate Change
Press Release No. 78/2025
8 July 2025
Wafaie W. Fawzi speaks on the triple burden affecting children and young people
How do undernutrition, obesity and climate change as interrelated crises especially threaten the health of young people? Prof. Dr Wafaie W. Fawzi is going to address this topic in a visiting lecture at Heidelberg University, the current Marsilius Lecture. Citing examples from different world regions, the physician and epidemiologist from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (USA) will show how the triple burden impacts children and young people, and point out the resultant challenges. The Marsilius-Kolleg of Ruperto Carola is hosting the lecture (in English) “The Triple Burden in Transition: Undernutrition, Obesity, and Climate Change in the Lives of Adolescents and Young People” on Monday 14 July 2025. The venue is the Great Hall of the Old University, and it begins at 4pm.
“Undernutrition, overweight and obesity, and climate change – once considered distinct challenges – now intersect to form a ‘triple burden’ that disproportionately affects young people,” Prof. Fawzi explains. “While global efforts over past decades have made progress in reducing child undernutrition, the gains are uneven and increasingly offset by rising rates of diet-related diseases among youth, including obesity and diabetes,” he adds, and underlines: “At the same time, climate change profoundly alters our food systems – with grave consequences for the health of young people, particularly in vulnerable communities.” In his lecture, Prof. Fawzi will explore the interconnections between these three global challenges.
At the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Wafaie Fawzi leads the interdepartmental Nutrition and Global Health Program. He has conducted many clinical and empirical studies on nutrition-related disease risks for children and young people. His work has made a major contribution to the evidence-based development of programs to foster healthy nutrition and global health policy. The researcher has founded several international networks, including the Africa Academy of Public Health. In recognition of his achievements, Prof. Fawzi was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in the United States in 2022.
Heidelberg University’s Marsilius-Kolleg focuses on bringing together selected researchers from different academic cultures, thereby promoting research-related dialogue between the humanities, law and social sciences, on the one hand, and the natural, engineering and life sciences, on the other.
