Photo of Professor Justin Remais

Research Bio

Justin Remais is an engineer and environmental health scientist whose research focuses on the transmission and control of infectious diseases in changing environments. He studies how urbanization, migration, climate variability and other changes affect the spread of pathogens and risks of the diseases they cause. Remais’s group develops models that integrate epidemiology, environmental science, and social data to forecast disease risks and assess public health interventions. His work is advancing our understanding of how sanitation, water, and climate systems will shape the future of global health in the decades to come.

Prof. Remais' group was the first to show that famine induces long-term and intergenerational effects on infectious disease transmission (PNAS), and he led the first international research effort to estimate the burden of water, sanitation and hygiene-attributable infectious diseases across China in the presence of a changing climate (Nature Climate Change). He also led an international team that published seminal work in The Lancet on the health consequences—both adverse and beneficial—of rapid urbanization in China, and its interaction with population aging and other sociodemographic trends. Professor Remais has led (as PI or co-PI) >$17 million in extramural research projects since being appointed to the Berkeley faculty in 2016.

He is Professor and Chair of Environmental Health Sciences at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health where he teaches and mentors students in environmental and epidemiological modeling, risk analysis, and global health policy. 

Research Expertise and Interest

Infectious disease dynamics, methodological issues in infectious disease surveillance, infectious diseases, infectious disease epidemiology, global environmental change, climate change, global change, urbanization, mathematical modeling, computational modeling

In the News

Safe Bay Area school reopenings may be possible with stringent social-distancing measures and reductions in community transmission

As the fall school semester is nearly underway, discussions are intensifying on whether, and how, to reopen schools amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A new study, led by researchers at UC Berkeley, finds that in-person classes in the Bay Area may be possible for elementary schools, but only if schools can successfully limit contact between students from different classes. In contrast, remote learning may be the only safe option for middle and high schools until community transmission is dramatically lowered.

Pesticides speed the spread of deadly waterborne pathogens

Widespread use of pesticides and other agrochemicals can speed the transmission of the debilitating disease schistosomiasis, while also upsetting the ecological balances in aquatic environments that prevent infections, finds a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.

How fat prawns can save lives

Before bite-sized crustaceans like crayfish, shrimp and prawns land on our dinner plates, they first have to get fat themselves — and it turns out they relish the freshwater snails that transmit the parasite that causes schistosomiasis, the second most devastating parasitic disease worldwide, after malaria.

When it comes to climate change, don’t forget the microbes

Scientists are rightly focused on anticipating and preventing the major impacts that climate change will have on humans, plants and animals. But they shouldn’t forget the effect on Earth’s microbes, on which everything else depends, warns a group of 33 biologists from around the globe.

Teaching

Courses taught during the three most recent terms
2026 Spring

  • Supervised Independent Study and Research  [PBHLTH 199]  

  • Health Implications of Climate Change  [PBHLTH 271G]  

  • Independent Research  [PBHLTH 299]  

2025 Fall

  • Supervised Independent Study and Research  [PBHLTH 199]  

  • Exposure Assessment and Control  [PBHLTH 270A]  

  • Environmental Determinants of Infectious Disease  [PBHLTH 273]  

  • Doctoral Seminar  [PBHLTH 293]  

  • Independent Research  [PBHLTH 299]  

2025 Spring

  • Field Study in Public Health  [PBHLTH 197]  

  • Supervised Independent Study and Research  [PBHLTH 199]  

  • Health Implications of Climate Change  [PBHLTH 271G]  

  • Seminars for M.P.H. Students  [PBHLTH 292]  

  • Independent Research  [PBHLTH 299]