This eleventh conference will focus on Global Health on a Warming Planet, emphasizing the relationship between health and climate. The interdisciplinary conference
invites participants from different disciplines to engage in civil discourse on a
different topic each year. The format of the conference includes workshops, presentations,
and posters.
The IOC theme for 2026 is a unique opportunity for collaboration to benefit the hundreds
of students who take interdisciplinary global health courses every semester. Offering
the first officially approved interdisciplinary global health programs at the university
since 2018, the Center for African Studies is happy to co-sponsor this conference
to further understanding, research and publication in global health.
The conference series was commissioned by former President Charles J. Dougherty as
an endowed academic event. Current University President, Ken Gormley, continues to
inspire excellence in support of the Spiritan mission as the conference series develops.
The conference has three goals:
Provide a scholarly opportunity to engage established and emerging research on the
conference topic
Foster interdisciplinary discourse on each topic, such as science, health, philosophy,
religion, and policy
Enlighten public awareness and discussion of the conference topic
Conference Information
Speakers
Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, DSc (hon)
Prof. Peter Hotez MD PhD DSc (hon) FAAP FASTMH is Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular
Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine where he is also Co-Director
of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, and Dean of the National
School of Tropical Medicine. He is also University Professor of Biology at Baylor
University. Dr. Hotez is a vaccine scientist, biochemist, and pediatrician who has
led or co-led the development of vaccines for parasitic infections-hookworm, schistosomiasis,
Chagas disease-currently in clinical trials, and several coronavirus vaccines, including
two low-cost COVID vaccines for global health so far administered to 100 million children
and adults in India and Indonesia. He is also an ardent vaccine advocate and science
explainer who combats antiscience and antisemitism in America, and globally.
Prof. Hotez has authored four single-authored books with Johns Hopkins University
Press, including Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism, Preventing the Next Pandemic,
and The Deadly Rise of Anti-science ,and in 2025 will co-author Science Under Siege(Public
Affairs)with the climate scientist, Michael Mann. Dr. Hotez obtained his B.A. (phi
beta kappa) from Yale University, M.D. from Weill Cornell Medical College, and Ph.D.
from Rockefeller University. He obtained his pediatric residency and fellowship training
from Massachusetts General Hospital and Yale School of Medicine.
Prof. Hotez is the author of more than 700 scientific papers, and he is an elected
member of the National Academy of Medicine and American Academy of Arts and Sciences
and has received numerous awards. They include the Scientific Freedom and Responsibility
Award from AAAS, the Scientific Achievement Award from the AMA, the David E Rogers
Award from the AAMC, the Science and Society Award from Sigma Xi, the Porter Prize
in public health from the University of Pittsburgh, Winslow Medal from Yale School
of Public Health, Mendel Medal in science and religion from Villanova University,
Milton Popkin Award from the ADL Southwest, and LBJ Moral Courage Award from the Holocaust
Museum Houston. He was named TIME MagazineHealth100 in 2024.
He has three honorary Doctor of Science degrees. Prof. Hotez served as US Science
Envoy for the Middle East and North Africa in 2015-16, and he appears frequently on
national media to explain biomedicine and pandemics.
Presentation: TBA Date and Time: March 24, 2026 at 6 p.m - 7:30 p.m. Abstract: TBA
Chika Onyejiuwa, CSSp
Chika Onyejiuwa was a graduate of Biochemistry before joining the Holy Ghost Congregation
in 1989. He was concreted to the apostolate in 1997 and ordained a priest in 1998.
He served as a pastor to the communities in the highly polluted creeks of Niger Delta
of Nigeria and formed part of the communities’ struggle for environmental justice
for 8 years. Chika Onyejiuwa did other graduate studies after ordination at the Institute
of Spiritual Leadership in the Catholic Theological Union (CTU) Chicago and Creigton
University Omaha, Nebraska. In 2014, he was called by the Congregation serve as the
Executive Secretary Africa Europe Faith & Justice Network (AEFJN) in Brussels that
has kept him on the frontline environmental advocacy. He is currently the Executive
Director of KIBANDA asbl; an NGO belonging to the European Spiritans that promotes
sustainable and integral human development.
Presentation: Global Warming: A Threat to Global Health Security Date and Time: March 25, 2026 at 6 p.m - 7:30 p.m. Abstract: Two global warming factors appears to underpin threats to global health. Industrial Food System: The global food system is grown with antimicrobials, pesticides,
herbicides, fungicides or any other “cides”. This has destroyed left us with poison
on our plates instead of food. Knowing that health is largely determined by what we
eat, we need agroecological transition and farmers’ managed seed system in food system
as a strategic solution. Soil Carbon Credits: The soil carbon trade is an unsustainable strategy for climate
mitigation for two critical reasons. (i) Achieving carbon neutrality does not reduce emissions, which is a key strategy
for reducing global warming. (ii) The idea that the sequestered carbon credits will remain permanent is a fallacy
because the natural disasters and other human activities are not factored in. The warming temperatures promote mutations of microbial strands producing the “superbugs”.
This antimicrobial resistance is a growing threat to public health.
Conference Schedule
TBA
IOC Proceeding Books
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Fostering Well-being as a UN Sustainable Development Goal. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Resilience in Ecology, and Health. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2023.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Strands of Sustainability. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Toward a Healthy Planet. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021.
Magill, G., L. Prybil. Governance Ethics in Healthcare Organizations, Routledge, 2020, Paperback, 2021.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. The Global Sustainability Crisis. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Cascading Challenges in the Global Water Crisis. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019. Paperback, 2021.
Magill, G., J. Potter, eds. Integral Ecology. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018. Paperback, 2021.
Magill. G., Aramesh, K., eds. The Urgency of Climate Change. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.
