He obtained his bachelor’s (BSc in Basic Medical Sciences), master's degrees (MSc in Medical Anthropology), and medical degree (MD) from the UP College of Medicine, and his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam.
He was visiting PhD researcher at the Washington University of St. Louis (2015) and National University of Singapore's Asia Research Institute (2016); visiting faculty at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil (2019); visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2021); and postdoctoral research fellow at the Wageningen University & Research (2023). He has given keynotes and lectures to various institutions including Columbia University, La Trobe University, Humboldt University, University of Toronto, among others, and has presented in numerous social science and public health conferences.
Dr. Lasco's research projects have focused on contemporary health issues, including drug issues, COVID-19, health systems, and politics of health, and yielded over 50 journal articles and book chapters in the past five years. They have also led to two academic books: Drugs and Philippines Society (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2021), an edited volume which features critical perspectives on drug use and drug policy in the country, as well as Height Matters, forthcoming monograph on human stature
with the University of the Philippines Press.
As an applied anthropologist and public health practitioner, Dr. Lasco has also served as consultant for organizations like the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). In 2019, he was selected as an Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity in Southeast Asia.
Beyond his work in medical anthropology and public health, he is also involved in environmental and civic initiatives, building not just on his academic background but his lifelong pursuit of mountain climbing. He is a trustee of Centre for Sustainability, an environmental non-profit organisation based in Palawan and of the Philippine Center for Investigate Journalism (PCIJ). He serves as board member of Ugnayang Pang-Agham Tao (UGAT), the national association of anthropologists in the Philippines, and of
the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP). He also maintains a weekly column on health, culture, and national affairs in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, as well as a column in SAPIENS, the online anthropology magazine, that focuses on the relationships of humans with other species.
For his scholarship, he received the Virginia A. Miralao Award for Research Excellence (VAMERA) and the inaugural ISSDP Research Excellence Award, and for his creative writing he has received a Palanca Award for Essay, among other citations. In 2022, he was named Outstanding Young Scientist (OYS) and one of the Outstanding Young Men (TOYM); that year, he also received the National Book Award for The Philippines Is Not A Small Country.
Updated May 2023
