Richard Cash

Richard Alan Cash stands as a pioneering figure in global health research and ethics, serving as Senior Lecturer in International Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His academic journey began with a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1963), followed by an M.D. from New York University School of Medicine (1966), and an MPH from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (1973). His groundbreaking career started at the Pakistan-SEATO Cholera Research Laboratory in Dhaka, where he conducted the first clinical trials of Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT), a revolutionary treatment estimated to have saved over 60 million lives worldwide. As Director of the Program on Ethical Issues in International Health, he has conducted over 60 international workshops on research ethics and led the Applied Diarrheal Disease Research Project, which supported over 150 studies across twelve countries. His contributions to global health have earned him numerous prestigious awards, including the 2006 Prince Mahidol Award and the 2011 Fries Prize for Improving Health. Throughout his career at Harvard, he has taught courses ranging from International Health to Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, while maintaining visiting faculty positions at institutions worldwide, including BRAC University in Bangladesh and the University of Nagasaki. His work continues to influence global health policy and practice through his research on scaling up health programs and his leadership in developing ethical guidelines for international health research.