Urban and Occupational Particles Research Core

Overview

Understanding exposures to environmental and occupational airborne particles, their health effects, the mechanisms of these effects, and public health implications of these exposures requires a multidisciplinary approach including the expertise of atmospheric chemists, engineers, aerosol scientists, toxicologists, physiologists, pulmonologists, cardiologists, immunologists, molecular biologists, epidemiologists, statisticians, and experts in risk assessment. The Harvard NIEHS Center brings together these disciplines to address this issue building on an extensive portfolio of active research at the Harvard School of Public Health and allied institutions. The productivity and leadership of the Harvard NIEHS Center in assessing the exposures, the health effects, and the public policy implications of airborne particles highlights the importance of the multidisciplinary approach made possible by the Harvard NIEHS Environmental Health Center.

The objectives of the Urban and Occupational Particles Research Core are:

To integrate studies of airborne particle exposures and their health effects across the multiple scientific disciplines of the investigators represented in the Harvard NIEHS Center;
To innovate particle research within the Harvard NIEHS Center through pilot studies, collaborations, and investigator development;
To create a rich environment for research training for doctoral and postdoctoral students through a regular seminar series and workshops which will bring together particle researchers at HSPH, as well as researchers from other institutions; and
To disseminate the results of the particle research to the scientific community, to policy makers, and to the lay community.