SCPKU Summer Seminar 2026: AI-Enabled Global Public Health and Population Health Management

Program Overview: The Stanford Center at Peking University (SCPKU) offers Stanford students a special opportunity for short-term study in Beijing. These three-week seminars are taught by Stanford faculty representing disciplines and schools spanning the entire campus and are specifically designed to integrate course content and program location. 

Program Dates: August 24 - September 11, 2026

Seminar Details: This three-week intensive seminar focuses on advancing global health through cross-cultural collaboration and exploring responsible AI applications in population health and health policy decision-making. Topics include (1) AI applications over the lifecourse to promote healthy aging and chronic disease control; (2) the incentives of AI developers, clinicians, patients, and policymakers in developing and deploying AI for population health management, and how these incentives shape the intended and unintended outcomes; and (3) the potential for embodied or physical AI (robotics and assistive devices) for creating social value in population health and healthy aging, including assisting older adults. Classroom discussion and guest lectures will be complemented by field visits to learn about population health programs and related initiatives in Hangzhou and Shenzhen. Stanford students will collaborate with selected graduate students from Peking University and Tsinghua University on group projects exploring predictive modeling and ethical considerations in AI-driven global public health and population health management.

Course Prerequisites: The course welcomes graduate students and advanced undergraduate students interested in responsible AI implementation for improving population health. Although there are no specific prerequisites, students should have completed some coursework in a related discipline such as epidemiology, biostatistics, bioinformatics, health policy, health economics, population health, medicine, data science, or public policy. 

Open to: Advanced Undergraduate, Co-term, Master's, and PhD-level Stanford students are welcome to apply.

Instructor Details:

Karen Eggleston is a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Director of the Asia Health Policy Program in the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, and Professor, by courtesy, of Health Policy at Stanford University. In addition to over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, Eggleston’s books include The Dragon, the Eagle, and the Private Sector: Public-Private Collaboration in China and the United States with John D. Donahue and Richard J. Zeckhauser; Welfare, Choice and Solidarity in Transition with János Kornai; and Who Shall Live? Health, Economics and Social Choice 3rd Edition with Victor R. Fuchs (Chinese language edition forthcoming from Peking University Press in 2026). She earned her PhD in public policy from Harvard University and is an affiliate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Michelle Williams is an epidemiologist, an award-winning educator, and a widely recognized academic leader. Since stepping down as Dean of the Faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, she joined Stanford University’s School of Medicine faculty as a tenured Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health. Her research places special emphasis in the areas of reproductive, perinatal, pediatric, and molecular epidemiology. She has directed large cohort studies in Asia, South America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Williams has published more than 540 scientific articles as well as The Cure for Everything: The Epic Struggle for Public Health and a Radical Vision for Human Thriving with Linda Marsa (2026). In 2016, Dr. Williams was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, and in 2020 was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and recognized by PR Week as one of the top 50 health influencers of the year. Dr. Williams has master’s and doctoral degrees in epidemiology from Harvard University, TH Chan School of Public Health.

Covered Expenses: SCPKU will cover participating students’ lodging and meals for the duration of the seminar, and class-organized travel expenses within China. Students will be responsible for visa and passport application fees, flights to/from Beijing, pre-departure immunization costs, health insurance, and all other incidental expenses. Note that withdrawal after the cancellation deadline will incur a fee.