Bapu Vaitla is a visiting scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, focusing on the interaction of marine biological networks and human economies; a visiting lecturer at the University of California-Davis on cooperation in food systems; a research fellow at the Feinstein Center at Tufts University, looking at social and economic networks in rural, food-insecure areas of the developing world; and a research fellow co-managing a gender inequality research portfolio with Data2X, a project of the United Nations Foundation. His core interest is the relationship between human cooperation and child well-being: why people decide to work together (or not) for mutual benefit, and the effects of these decisions on public policy, cultural change, and ultimately the lives of children. He was born in India and grew up in California. He holds a BA in Nature and Culture and an MS in International Agricultural Development from the University of California-Davis, as well as a PhD in international relations/political economy from Tufts University. He has also attended the Santa Fe Institute's Complex Systems Summer School. He has worked internationally in numerous countries, focusing especially on India, Ethiopia, and Brazil, for UNICEF, the NGO Action Against Hunger, and other international organizations.
