Stephen P. Luby

Steve Luby headshot

Stephen P. Luby, MD

  • Faculty Lead, Center for Human and Planetary Health
  • Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)
  • Professor of Epidemiology & Population Health (by courtesy)
  • Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
  • Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
  • Faculty Affiliate at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions
  • Director of Research, Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health
  • Affiliated faculty at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law

Y2E2
473 Via Ortega
Stanford, CA 94305

(650) 723-4129 (voice)
(650) 725-3402 (fax)

Biography

Prof. Stephen Luby studied philosophy and earned a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Creighton University. He then earned his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas and completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Rochester-Strong Memorial Hospital. He studied epidemiology and preventive medicine at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Prof. Luby's former positions include leading the Epidemiology Unit of the Community Health Sciences Department at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, for five years and working as a Medical Epidemiologist in the Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) exploring causes and prevention of diarrheal disease in settings where diarrhea is a leading cause of childhood death.  Immediately prior to joining the Stanford faculty, Prof. Luby served for eight years at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), where he directed the Centre for Communicable Diseases. He was also the Country Director for CDC in Bangladesh.

During his over 25 years of public health work in low-income countries, Prof. Luby frequently encountered political and governance difficulties undermining efforts to improve public health. His work within the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) connects him with a community of scholars who provide ideas and approaches to understand and address these critical barriers.

 

publications

Journal Articles
July 2024

Evidence of turmeric adulteration with lead chromate across South Asia

Author(s)
cover link Evidence of turmeric adulteration with lead chromate across South Asia
Journal Articles
January 2022

Displacing fishmeal with protein derived from stranded methane

Author(s)
cover link Displacing fishmeal with protein derived from stranded methane
Working Papers
November 2021

The Impact of Community Masking on COVID-19: A Cluster-Randomized Trial in Bangladesh

Author(s)
cover link The Impact of Community Masking on COVID-19: A Cluster-Randomized Trial in Bangladesh

In The News

surgical mask on white background
News

Surgical masks work very well in preventing spread of COVID-19, biggest ever study finds

"We now have evidence from a randomized, controlled trial that mask promotion increases the use of face coverings and prevents the spread of COVID-19," said Stephen Luby, MD, professor of medicine at Stanford and co-author of the study, in a press release.
cover link Surgical masks work very well in preventing spread of COVID-19, biggest ever study finds
covid 19 radoslav zilinsky
News

Stanford study on the effectiveness of surgical masks against COVID-19

A new study has confirmed that surgical masks reduce the spread of COVID-19 and confirms the impact of mask-wearing on communities. For more, KCBS Radio's Margie Shafer spoke with Dr. Stephen Luby, Medical Epidemiologist and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, senior author of the study.
cover link Stanford study on the effectiveness of surgical masks against COVID-19