Paul Farmer

Paul Farmer (born October 26, 1959) is an American anthropologist and physician, currently the Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology at Harvard University and an attending physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. His medical specialty is Infectious Diseases. Farmer is one of the founders of Partners In Health (PIH), an international health and social justice organization. His work is the subject of Tracy Kidder's 2003 book Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World.

Education
Farmer graduated summa cum laude from Duke University in 1982 with a Bachelor's Degree in anthropology, having attended on the merit-based Angier B. Duke Scholarship. He received his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1988 and his Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1990 from Harvard University.

International work
In 1987, Farmer, along with Thomas J. White and Todd McCormack, co-founded Partners In Health. PIH began in Cange in the Central Plateau of Haiti and has developed into a worldwide health organization. The PIH hospital in Haiti provides free treatment to patients. PIH helps patients living in poverty to obtain effective drugs to treat tuberculosis and AIDS.

In addition to his hospital in Haiti, Farmer oversees projects in Russia, Rwanda, and Peru. He's known for his support of a "preferential option for the poor," a central tenet of Catholic social teaching. His approach has its basis in ethnographic analysis and real world practicality.

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder details Farmer's work in Haiti, Peru, and Russia, as well as his efforts to balance clinical and academic responsibilities with having a family of his own.

Honors
Farmer has won multiple honors including:
 * A "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation (1993)
 * Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize ($1.5 million), which he gave to Partners in Health.
 * American Medical Association's International Physician Award
 * 2007 Austin College Leadership Award ($100,000), which he will donate to Partners in Health.

Farmer received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Emory University on May 14, 2007, where he delivered the keynote address for the university's 162nd commencement ceremony.

He also received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Notre Dame on May 20, 2007, where he also was a speaker at the Notre Dame forum in September 2006.

Publications

 * AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, 1993, 2006 edition: ISBN 978-0-520-08343-1
 * The Uses of Haiti, Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1994, 2003, 2005 edition: ISBN 978-1-56751-242-7
 * ¿Haití para qué?, Hondarribia, Spain: HIRU Argitaletxea, 1994
 * Sida en Haїti: La Victime accusée, Paris: Editions Karthala, 1996
 * Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999, revised 2001 edition: ISBN 978-0-520-22913-6
 * Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, 2005 edition: ISBN 978-0-520-24326-2
 * Women, Poverty & AIDS: Sex, Drugs and Structural Violence (Series in Health and Social Justice), with coauthor Margaret Connors (Author), Common Courage Press; Reprint edition (September 1996), ISBN 978-1-56751-074-4

Personal
Farmer was born in North Adams, Massachusetts and raised in Brooksville, Florida. He and his wife Didi have one daughter. His younger brother, Jeff Farmer, also known as the nWo Sting, is a well known fighter, competing on the professional wrestling circuit.