Dr. Luby earned his MD degree from the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical School at Dallas. His previous positions include directing the Centre for Communicable Diseases at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh in Dhaka, Bangladesh, conducting research and teaching epidemiology at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, and working as an epidemiologist in the Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Luby is best known for his work demonstrating the impact of handwashing on disease reduction in low income countries, characterizing the epidemiology of Nipah virus transmission in Bangladesh, and explicating the importance of unsafe injections for transmission of hepatitis C in low income countries.