T. Clasen

Biography

After practicing international corporate law for 20 years, I returned to school and obtained an MSc in control of infectious diseases and a PhD in environmental health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  I joined the faculty of the LSHTM in 2004, and became Professor of Water, Sanitation and Health. I moved to the Rollins School of Public Health in 2013 as Professor of Environmental Health and Rose Salamone Gangarosa Chair of Sanitation and Safe Water. I lead a group of researchers whose work consists mainly of health impact evaluations of water, sanitation and household air pollution interventions in low-income countries.  Publications include more than 15 RCTs in Latin America, Africa and South Asia; Cochrane reviews of water quality and sanitation interventions to prevent diarrhoeal disease and enteric infection; methods papers on improving the rigor of evalutating environmental health interventions; cost and cost-effectiveness analyses; and policy analyses of global environmental health initiatives.  Current field research includes an evaluation of a rural water and sanitation programmes in Orissa; an RCT to assess the impact of arsenic water filters in West Bengal; a health impact evaluation of a large-scale deployment of water filters and improved cook-stoves in Western Province, Rwanda; and a trial to evaluate household air filters in New Delhi. I serve as an advisor to the World Health Organization in developing the first set of Guidelines on Sanitation and Health.

Research Interest

Evaluation, Global Health, Health Outcomes, Infectious Disease, Safe Water and Sanitation, Air Pollution