Dr. Christopher J.L. Murray

Dr. Christopher J.L. Murray is Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Metrics Sciences at the University of Washington and Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). His career has focused on improving population health worldwide through better evidence. A physician and health economist, his work has led to the development of innovative methods to strengthen health measurement, analyze the performance of health systems, understand the drivers of health, and produce forecasts of the future state of health.

He leads the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) collaboration, a systematic effort to quantify the comparative magnitude of health loss due to diseases, injuries, and risk factors by age, sex, and geography over time. The GBD generates assessments for more than 375 diseases and injuries and 88 risk factors for 204 countries and 811 states and provinces within them. The study now spans over 20,000 scientists and decision-makers from 167 countries. He also led critical analyses during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand its impact on health systems and the population as a whole, and the effectiveness of policy interventions to mitigate it.