[11] At the urging of one of his high school teachers, Fukuda went to Oberlin College in 1973 for undergraduate studies, finishing in 1978.
[5] He stayed in Tamil Nadu in South India for 6 months between his second and third year at medical school, working with indigenous tribes.
[9] Fukuda entered the University of California, Berkeley in 1988 and obtained a Master of Public Health (MPH) in epidemiology 1 year later.
[5] After completing his MPH, Fukuda worked in San Francisco Bay Area in clinics that focus on leprosy and tuberculosis, and then moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he spent 2 years studying in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
[9][19] In this position, he has led investigations into outbreaks of avian flu, including the one in 1997[20] in Hong Kong and another in 2004 in Vietnam.
[5] In March 2009, Fukuda was appointed WHO Assistant Director-General ad interim for Health Security and Environment.
[2][42] Fukuda backpacked for nine months after his second year at the University of Vermont, traveling across Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe.