Sy is an Associated Researcher at the Research for Development Department at the Centre for Ecological Monitoring (CSE) in Dakar, Senegal and Head of the Climate Change and Adaptation Strategies Office. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), Dakar, Senegal. He completed his Ph.D. in Health Geography (Option Environment and Health in urban area) at the University of Strasbourg, France. Previously, he successively worked at the University of Strasbourg (UDS) as associated professor (2004-2006 and 2008-2013), the Swiss Centre for Scientific Research in Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS) as fellow researcher (2007-2009), the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute Switzerland (Swiss-TPH) as South Project Leader appointed at the National Institute for Public Health Research (INRSP) in Mauritania (2009-2013) and the Ecological Monitoring Centre (CSE) in Senegal (2014-2016). From January 2016 to June 2017, Dr. Sy coordinated the Research for Development Unit of the  Centre for Ecological Monitoring (CSE). Dr. Ibrahima Sy coordinated several research projects tackling the challenges of water, environmental sanitation, spatial epidemiology, climate change and health in Mauritania, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire in collaboration with several national institutions. The recent research project that he coordinated at the CSE is ACASIS (Heat waves Alert in Sahel and Impact on Health). Sy area of interest is Environmental Sanitation, Spatial Epidemiology, climate change and Urban Health. He is currently supervising three PhD students working on environment, climate change and health risks with particular emphasis on heat waves and health impacts. Sy has presented his research findings at several conferences and workshops in more than 30 peer-reviewed articles in reputable academic journals. He is also involved mentoring more than 50 master students.

Project: Implementing an early warning system for building communities’ resilience to health impacts of climate change in the North of Senegal (IW4HI)

The project is developing a heat health alert system using the bias-corrected CMIP5 RCP climate change projections able to detect heat waves risks and to anticipate their health impact up to 2100. With the phenomenon of increasing temperature, health impacts associated to heat waves become a major public health emergency that particularly affects developing countries located in the Sahelian zone. Faced to this new health issue, the health system actors are trying to provide preventive measures to improve the communities resilience but they have not access to relevant scientific information for managing this type of climate risk consequently. This needs a research to know deeply the heat waves health impact but also to develop climate services that can help manage this risk through a transdisciplinary and multisectoral approach. Building on the results of ACASIS project (Heatwave Alert in the Sahel and Impact on Health) and the BRCCAA (Climate Change and Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies Reference Office) on strengthening capacity in climate information access, the research proposal aims to implement an early warning system for heat waves to strengthen the resilience of the health system and communities against potential health risks. This project is part of the Senegal Climate and Health Initiative, the WMO-WHO programme « Global Health Heat Information Network (GHHIN)", the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 3 and 13) and the Health component of National Determined Contribution (CDN).