The first Harvard China Clean Air Forum will be held on April 2nd (Saturday) at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. This half-day forum brings together eminent researchers and policy makers from a variety of perspective to discuss urgent and complex questions related to air pollution in China.
Speakers:
Gary Adamkiewicz, Assistant Professor, Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
Dr. Adamkiewicz is an assistant Professor of Environmental Health and Exposure Disparities in the Department of Environmental Health, where much of his work focuses on the connections between housing and health, especially within low-income communities. Dr. Adamkiewicz is a member of the Science Advisory Committee for the National Center for Healthy Housing, and has served as an advisor to the World Health Organization’s effort to establish indoor air quality guidelines. Dr. Adamkiewicz also serves as the Healthy Cities Program Leader at the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHGE). Through his work at CHGE, he is leading China-based studies that examine the intersection between urbanization, sustainability, and health.
Steve Bergstrom, Director, Office of Sustainability, Intermountain Healthcare
Steven has been with Intermountain Healthcare for over thirty years with experience in the Supply Chain, environmental preferred purchasing, vendor certification/relations, and inventory management. He was promoted to Director of Sustainability for Intermountain Healthcare in 2010. He is currently on the board of Utah Recycling Alliance, the Health Care Without Harm Health Care Climate Council, a member of Practice Greenhealth, a member of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce- Clean Air Committee, Water Committee, and Natural Resource Business Council, and has served on several energy committees for the State of Utah.
Qingchen Chao, Deputy Director, China National Climate Center
Dr. Chao is in charge of the planning and coordination of climate related policies including research and public education of climate change. She has participated in the Climate Change negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention, as well as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meetings.
Douglas Dockery, John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Environmental Epidemiology
Chairman, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Dockery is a Professor of Environmental Epidemiology, Chair of the Department of Environmental Health, and Director of the Harvard-NIEHS Center for Environmental Health. He is internationally known for his innovative work in environmental epidemiology, particularly in understanding the relationship between air pollution and respiratory and cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. He continues to research the health effects of air pollution, exposure estimation and misclassification, and the benefits of air pollution controls.
Henry Lee, Director, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government
Dr. Lee has served on numerous state, federal, and private boards, and advisory committees on both energy and environmental issues. Additionally, he has worked with private and public organizations, including the InterAmerican Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the State of Sao Paulo, the U.S. Departments of Energy and Interior, the National Research Council, the Intercontinental Energy Corporation, General Electric, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the U.S. EPA. His recent research interests focus on energy and transportation, China’s energy policy, and public infrastructure projects in developing countries. Mr. Lee is the author of recent papers on both the U.S. and China, the economic viability of electric vehicles, as well as case studies on Iceland’s green energy agenda, Liberia’s electricity sector, the privatization of Rio de Janeiro’s airport, and the carbon tax in British Columbia.
Joel Schwartz, Professor, Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Schwartz’s work has examined both acute and chronic effects of air pollution exposure. Recent research has established that exposure to fine combustion particles in the air at concentrations well below current standards are associated with a range of adverse health effects from increased respiratory symptoms, to increased hospital admissions, to increased deaths. This work has led to a tightening of the U.S. air quality standards.
Chris Nielsen, Executive Director, China Project, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Nielsen is the executive director of the China Project, based at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences of Harvard University. Among other responsibilities he co-leads a major initiative integrating China Project research at Nanjing University, three schools of Tsinghua University, and three schools of Harvard in economics, engineering, atmospheric chemistry, environmental health, and policy. The team assesses the costs and environmental benefits of Chinese national policies to control CO2 and air pollutant emissions, reported in two MIT Press books that he co-edited. Nielsen also contributes to the Project’s research in atmospheric chemistry, emissions, and energy, including developing and managing a partnership with Tsinghua that operates an atmospheric station near Beijing. Nielsen has a B.A. in Geology from Colorado College, and an S.M. in technology and policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earlier lived in Taipei, Taiwan, working for the Colorado state trade and investment office.