Rıfat Atun becomes Harvard’s first Turkish dean

BOSTON

Professor Rıfat Atun has become the first Turkish academic to hold a deanship at Harvard University.

The Turkish Cypriot academic took office on Aug. 1 as dean for education and innovation at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

His responsibilities cover the school’s degree and non-degree programs, including efforts to introduce artificial intelligence and other technologies into teaching.

He previously served as vice dean for non-degree education and innovation.

Atun also holds the Julio Frenk Professorship of Public Health Leadership and is a professor of global health systems. His research focuses on health system performance, financing, reform and the adoption of new technologies.

He has advised the World Health Organization, the World Bank and G20 presidencies on health policy and reform, and previously chaired the Stop TB Partnership’s coordinating board.

Atun has published more than 500 papers, according to his Harvard profile. It lists him among Clarivate’s highly cited researchers for 2020–2025 and Stanford–Elsevier’s most influential scientists for 2021–2025.