Dr. Akanda’s primary expertise is in the intersections of Water Security, Climate Change and Global Health – and the development of early warning systems to benefit emerging public health issues in the developing world. Ali was the recipient of the NIH Ruth Kirschstein Predoctoral Fellowship and the Dean’s Fellowship during his PhD at Tufts University, Medford, MA. Ali’s doctoral research was the first to identify both dry and wet season hydroclimatic drivers of cholera outbreaks in South Asia and was instrumental in securing an NIH Research Challenge Grant on climate change impacts on cholera. His current research focuses on providing a large scale understanding of hydroclimatic forces affecting water-related disease outbreaks in resource constrained regions, and understanding health impacts of climatic and anthropogenic changes in rapidly growing urban regions of developing nations.