Dr. Rifat Atun is Professor of Global Health Systems, and the Director of Health Systems Innovation Lab at Harvard University. In 2016-2022 he served as the Faculty Chair of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program. In 2008-12 he was a member of the Executive Management at the Global Fund as Director of Strategy, Performance and Evaluation. His research extends globally and focuses on health system performance, health system transformation and innovation. He has published more than 450 papers in leading journals, including NEJM, Nature Medicine, Lancet, Lancet Oncology, JAMA, and Academy of Management Journal, and in 2020, 2021 and 2022 was recognized as one of the World's Most Highly Cited Researchers.

Dr. Atun has advised many governments around the world on health system reforms and acts as a consultant/advisor to the World Bank WHO, and leading health and technology companies. In 2019-20, Professor Atun was a senior advisor to the G20 Presidency and in 2021-22 was the co-chair of the G20 T20 Task Force on Global Health Security and COVID-19 for the G20 Indonesian Presidency. He was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine Committee on Health Systems, and the Advisory Boards of WHO Research Centre for Health Development in Japan the Norwegian Research Council’s Programme for Global Health Research and the UK Medical Research Council’s Global Health Group.

He is a member of the Longitude Prize Committee, and a founder and board chair of Movement Health 2030, a Swiss Foundation that supports innovations aimed at solving major global health challenges. He is the Founding President of the Global Surgery Foundation based in Geneva.