Stephen P. Luby

Steve Luby headshot

Stephen P. Luby, MD

  • Faculty Lead, Center for Human and Planetary Health
  • Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)
  • Professor of Epidemiology & Population Health (by courtesy)
  • Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
  • Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
  • Faculty Affiliate at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions
  • Director of Research, Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health
  • Affiliated faculty at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law

Y2E2
473 Via Ortega
Stanford, CA 94305

(650) 723-4129 (voice)
(650) 725-3402 (fax)

Biography

Prof. Stephen Luby studied philosophy and earned a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Creighton University. He then earned his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas and completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Rochester-Strong Memorial Hospital. He studied epidemiology and preventive medicine at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Prof. Luby's former positions include leading the Epidemiology Unit of the Community Health Sciences Department at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, for five years and working as a Medical Epidemiologist in the Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) exploring causes and prevention of diarrheal disease in settings where diarrhea is a leading cause of childhood death.  Immediately prior to joining the Stanford faculty, Prof. Luby served for eight years at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), where he directed the Centre for Communicable Diseases. He was also the Country Director for CDC in Bangladesh.

During his over 25 years of public health work in low-income countries, Prof. Luby frequently encountered political and governance difficulties undermining efforts to improve public health. His work within the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) connects him with a community of scholars who provide ideas and approaches to understand and address these critical barriers.

 

publications

Journal Articles
May 2025

Reducing emissions and air pollution from informal brick kilns: Evidence from Bangladesh

Author(s)
Reducing emissions and air pollution from informal brick kilns: Evidence from Bangladesh
Journal Articles
July 2024

Evidence of turmeric adulteration with lead chromate across South Asia

Author(s)
Evidence of turmeric adulteration with lead chromate across South Asia
Journal Articles
January 2022

Displacing fishmeal with protein derived from stranded methane

Author(s)
Displacing fishmeal with protein derived from stranded methane

In The News

An image of two women grinding coal used to fuel brick kilns outside Dhaka, Bangladesh.
News

Research Guides Bangladesh Toward Cleaner Brick Production

A new study by Stanford researchers, including Stephen P. Luby, shows that simple operational fixes in brick kilns can reduce coal use and emissions, pointing to scalable solutions in unregulated industries.
Research Guides Bangladesh Toward Cleaner Brick Production
Stephen Luby
News

Meet Stephen Luby, winner of Stanford’s highest teaching award

Professor Stephen Luby marries philosophy with medicine in his work in epidemiology in low-income countries across South Asia.
Meet Stephen Luby, winner of Stanford’s highest teaching award
Steve Luby Headshot 2024
News

Stephen Luby Awarded the Walter J. Gores Award for Exceptional Teaching, Service, and Academic Achievement

The award is the university’s highest award for excellence in teaching.
Stephen Luby Awarded the Walter J. Gores Award for Exceptional Teaching, Service, and Academic Achievement