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Profile

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​Dr Daniel Rainham has been a Senior Research Scholar at the Healthy Populations Institute (HPI) making meaningful contributions at the intersections of population health, environmental epidemiology, and health geography. With the current global challenges posed by the pandemic and climate crisis, Dr Rainham’s focus on people-environment interactions and how these interactions affect health is of uttermost relevance. Daniel is co-leading the ‘Creating Sustainable Health Systems in a Climate Crisis’ flagship project at HPI.

 

In addition to his leading role at HPI’s flagship project and his responsibilities as Associate professor at the School of Health and Human Performance, Daniel holds several cross-appointments in Community Health and Epidemiology, the College of Sustainability, the Schools of Planning and Resource and Environmental Studies, and he is an Associate Scientist with the Maritime SPOR Support Unit in the Faculty of Medicine. His ongoing research projects aim at improving urban environments for resilient and healthy populations to thrive across their lifespan, from children’s health and quality of learning environments (CIHR funded Optimizing Health and Sustainability Interventions on Schoolgrounds project: OHASIS) to the quality of public spaces (Air Quality, Noise and Traffic Baseline Study: Spring Garden Road Streetscaping Project, Halifax Regional Municipality), and a Nova Scotia Health Atlas that can act as a source of research intelligence for health policy and decision making in the province. His projects are characterized by technological innovations in wearable data capture and spatial analytics that have been applied to patient management strategies, physical activity interventions and empirical research on the role of nature contact in supporting healthy behaviours.

 

Dr Rainham is the former Director of the Environmental Science program at the Faculty of Science at Dalhousie and has held numerous honours and awards including the Elizabeth May Chair in Sustainability and Environmental Health. Since 2009, Daniel has received approximately CAN$10 million in funding (over 1.5 million as Principal Investigator) from various agencies including CIHR, SSHRC, PHAC, CFI, Health Canada, Research Nova Scotia, Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia, etc. He has published three book chapters, and around 60 peer reviewed scientific journal articles, with over 2,000 citations. Beyond the extensive academic impact of Dr Rainham work, Daniel is an avid and sought-after communicator to broader audiences, making frequent appearances on local or national media. Dr Rainham has participated of numerous knowledge translation activities at HPI including video productions and special events such as the discussion panel: “Inside/Out: How Covid-19 is shifting our sense of places and spaces and what this means in a post-pandemic world” organized by HPI, the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance (MIPP), and Dalhousie Alumni Engagement.

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Education

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MSc, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta

PhD, Population Health Science, University of Ottawa

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Research Interests

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• Population Health Science

• Planetary Health/One Health

• Environmental Epidemiology

• Health Geography

• Spatial Analysis

• Children’s Health

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