The Balsari Lab studies the impact of public health emergencies, disasters, and war on vulnerable populations.
Our team collaborates with populations in distress, humanitarian response agencies, civil society organizations, governments, and international agencies to reduce information asymmetries that threaten to exclude the poor and disadvantaged from decisions that impact their lives.
Leveraging mobile technology, data science, machine learning, and mixed methods, we have built digital decision support tools to advance clinical and population health outcomes in underserved communities globally.
Featured Projects
Science Communication
Hum Sab Ek
An immersive exhibit built from the powerful stories of 3 million women in India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association, who worked in the informal sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Climate Change & Human Health
Community HATS
Uncovering the impacts of extreme heat, Community HATS supports local communities and governments in India to build effective climate strategies.
Digital Tools for Public Health
Community Science Alliance
Uniting healthcare organizations, tech companies, and physicians from India and the U.S. to promote evidence-based medicine across India.
Climate Change & Human Health
Climateverse
An open-access repository of curated climate datasets that enhances data quality, access, and usability by leveraging LLMs and Generative AI to break down barriers to utilization.
Digital Tools for Public Health
Digital Health Needs Finding Study
Exploring the digital requirements of Indian health systems, seeking innovative solutions, and pinpointing discrepancies between stakeholder needs and current identification methods.
Hum Sab Ek Curatorial Tour
Friday, May 9 | 7:00–8:00 PM ET
Saturday, May 10 | 11:30 AM–12:00 PM ET & 2:15–3:00 PM ET
Hopkins Bloomberg Center
555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
Join us at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C., for a powerful curatorial tour of Hum Sab Ek (We Are One)—a moving exhibit highlighting the voices and resilience of India’s Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA).
Through oral histories, photography, and research from SEWA members and Harvard scholars, the installation explores how marginalized communities navigated the pandemic and are preparing for a changing climate.
Workstreams
Climate Change & Human Health
Disaster Impact Assessment
Digital Tools for Public Health
Science Communication
Events
The Salata Institute for Climate & Sustainability & The Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute
India 2047: Building a Climate-Resilient Future
March 19-22, 2025
Climate Change and Planetary Health Concentration Talk
How hot is it really? Who decides?
February 26, 2025
Amrita University
Too Hot To Work? What Would Climate Adaptation Look Like For India’s Labor Force?
February 20, 2025
The Paul Farmer Symposium on Global Health Equity
The Audacity of Accompaniment
November 19, 2024
The Harvard Global Health Institute
Oral Histories, Microsensors, and Parametric Insurance: When Poor Women Workers Drive the Research Agenda
June 28, 2024