Established in 2024, Wits Planetary Health Research (Wits PHR) conducts pioneering, cutting-edge planetary health research with a focus on the effects of climate change on public health. We are a division of Wits Health Consortium (Pty) Ltd, a research consortium in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, our network extends internationally, with a presence in South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
The division is led by Professor Matthew Chersich , a public health researcher with 20 years of experience working across Africa. A leading expert on the health impacts of climate change, particularly in relation to pregnancy and heat exposure, Professor Chersich recognised the urgent need for focused research in sub-Saharan Africa's resource-constrained settings. In 2018, he comprehensive bodies of work on the subject globally. This groundbreaking work laid the foundation for critical questions in the climate crises, the defining issue of our time and indeed the future of health of the planet, both the human and natural world.