Dr. Petros Koutrakis
Program Director
Dr. Koutrakis’ research activities focus on the development of human exposure measurement techniques and the investigation of sources, transport, and the fate of air pollutants. In collaboration with his colleagues in the Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, he has developed ambient particle concentrators and high-volume samplers that can be used to conduct human and animal inhalation studies. He has also developed a personal ozone monitor, a continuous fine particle measurement technique and several other sampling methods for a variety of gaseous and particulate air pollutants. These novel techniques have been used extensively by air pollution scientists and human exposure assessors in United States and worldwide.
Dr. Koutrakis has conducted several comprehensive air pollution studies in the United States, Canada, Spain, Chile, Kuwait, Cyprus, and Greece that investigate the extent of human exposures to gaseous and particulate air pollutants. Other research interests include the assessment of particulate matter exposures and their effects on the cardiac and pulmonary health. Most recently he has investigated the health effects of environmental radiation, with over 30 recent publications.
Dr. Koutrakis is the Director of the EPA/Harvard University Center for Ambient Particle Health Effects. He is a member of several national and international committees and the past Technical Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association. He has published over 460 peer reviewed papers in the areas of air quality, exposure, and health effects assessment and instrumentation. A partial list of his publications can be found on PubMed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=koutrakis+p
