Eric K. Noji

Biography

Dr. Eric K. Noji is a physician trained in Emergency Medicine, tropical and public health with over 25 years of experience working internationally, primarily in the poorest countries where he has served as Senior Technical Advisor, Team Leader, Program/ Project Manager, and consultant on numerous occasions to solve a wide variety of medical and public health problems for government agencies, NGOs, and international organizations such as USAID, WHO, UNICEF, and the World Bank. Most of his assignments overseas were in response to large-scale public health emergencies such as natural disasters, epidemics, and situations where violent civil conflict has forced communities to leave their homes resulting in catastrophic humanitarian crises as we are currently witnessing in Aleppo and Mosul. Such disasters have taken Professor Noji all over the world, including assignments in northern and sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Balkans, the Middle East from Lebanon to Afghanistan, China, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Rim, and for almost a year he provided medical care to communities in the vast Siberian tundra, most of which were located well above the Arctic circle. Almost always, his medical research and humanitarian work took him to the most dangerous of places under the most difficult of circumstances, in the most austere environments and most inhospitable of conditions. During these difficult years, Dr. Noji developed several technological innovations to care for emergency affected populations that many now consider visionary. He subsequently summarized this work in a series of groundbreaking publications that revolutionized medical care in disaster situations and were influential in establishing public health standards for emergency health personnel.  In October 2010, Dr Noji was recognized for his pioneering work in establishing much of the scientific basis for public health responses to disasters and other humanitarian crises when he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academies of Science, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a physician in the United States.  On 14 July 2017 (Bastille Day) Professor Noji will be honored by the Government of France at a special ceremony of investiture at the Élysée Palace in Paris traditionally hosted by the President of the Republic, where he will be inducted into the prestigious Ordre des Palmes Académiques at the rank of Chevalier (Knight).  The Ordre des Palmes Académiques is an Order of Chivalry established by the Emperor Napoléon in 1808 to honour eminent professors and teachers in the scholarly worlds of science, culture and education.  In addition to his patient care, research, teaching and administrative responsibilities as a tenured, full Professor at King Saud University, Dr. Noji travels extensively to raise awareness and much-needed funds for organizations whose work he passionately believes in, primarily groups and individuals working to strengthen the education and health of children with very special needs who are homeless, abused, starving, illiterate, left orphaned or destitute by natural disasters, or physically and emotionally traumatized by war.  A native of Hawaii, Professor Noji is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, and completed his medical studies, graduate work, residency training and postgraduate research at the University of Rochester, the University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and Cambridge University in the UK. "...I live and work on the edge - the views are breathtaking, the experiences deep and satisfying and the learning is limitless... Dr. Eric K. Noji is a physician trained in Emergency Medicine, tropical and public health with over 25 years of experience working internationally, primarily in the poorest countries where he has served as Senior Technical Advisor, Team Leader, Program/ Project Manager, and consultant on numerous occasions to solve a wide variety of medical and public health problems for government agencies, NGOs, and international organizations such as USAID, WHO, UNICEF, and the World Bank. Most of his assignments overseas were in response to large-scale public health emergencies such as natural disasters, epidemics, and situations where violent civil conflict has forced communities to leave their homes resulting in catastrophic humanitarian crises as we are currently witnessing in Aleppo and Mosul. Such disasters have taken Professor Noji all over the world, including assignments in northern and sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Balkans, the Middle East from Lebanon to Afghanistan, China, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Rim, and for almost a year he provided medical care to communities in the vast Siberian tundra, most of which were located well above the Arctic circle. Almost always, his medical research and humanitarian work took him to the most dangerous of places under the most difficult of circumstances, in the most austere environments and most inhospitable of conditions. During these difficult years, Dr. Noji developed several technological innovations to care for emergency affected populations that many now consider visionary. He subsequently summarized this work in a series of groundbreaking publications that revolutionized medical care in disaster situations and were influential in establishing public health standards for emergency health personnel.  In October 2010, Dr Noji was recognized for his pioneering work in establishing much of the scientific basis for public health responses to disasters and other humanitarian crises when he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academies of Science, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a physician in the United States.  On 14 July 2017 (Bastille Day) Professor Noji will be honored by the Government of France at a special ceremony of investiture at the Élysée Palace in Paris traditionally hosted by the President of the Republic, where he will be inducted into the prestigious Ordre des Palmes Académiques at the rank of Chevalier (Knight).  The Ordre des Palmes Académiques is an Order of Chivalry established by the Emperor Napoléon in 1808 to honour eminent professors and teachers in the scholarly worlds of science, culture and education.  In addition to his patient care, research, teaching and administrative responsibilities as a tenured, full Professor at King Saud University, Dr. Noji travels extensively to raise awareness and much-needed funds for organizations whose work he passionately believes in, primarily groups and individuals working to strengthen the education and health of children with very special needs who are homeless, abused, starving, illiterate, left orphaned or destitute by natural disasters, or physically and emotionally traumatized by war.  A native of Hawaii, Professor Noji is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, and completed his medical studies, graduate work, residency training and postgraduate research at the University of Rochester, the University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and Cambridge University in the UK. "...I live and work on the edge - the views are breathtaking, the experiences deep and satisfying and the learning is limitless...

Research Interest

tropical and public health