Lidia Morawska

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Lidia Morawska

FAA
Alma materJagiellonian University
Scientific career
InstitutionsMcMaster University
University of Toronto
Queensland University of Technology

Lidia Morawska (Poland, 1952) is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, at the Queensland University of Technology. She is also Director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at QUT, co-Director of the Australia-China Centre for Air Quality Science and Management, an Adjunct Professor at the Jinan University in China, and a Vice-Chancellor Fellow, Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. Her work focuses on fundamental and applied research in the interdisciplinary field of air quality and its impact on human health, with a specific focus on atmospheric fine, ultrafine and nanoparticles. In 2020, she contributed to the area of airborne infection transmission of viruses, including COVID-19 . In that same year she became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), [1][2][3] and received the 2021 International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate Special 2020 Award for an Extraordinary Academic Leadership. In 2018, she received the Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research (Australian Museum of Eureka Prizes), as well as the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) 2017 David Sinclair Award.[citation needed]

Academic career[]

Morawska is a physicist and received her doctorate in 1982 at the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland for research on radon and its progeny.[citation needed]

Prior to joining QUT in 1991, she spent from 1987 to 1991 conducting research first at McMaster University in Hamilton as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and later at the University of Toronto.[citation needed]

She has conducted research in this field since 1991, when she established the Environmental Aerosol Laboratory at QUT, renamed the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health in 2002.

She then took up a position as Associate Professor at the QUT, in 2003.[citation needed]

She is a long-standing collaborator and advisor to the World Health Organization, contributing to all WHO air quality-related guidelines over the past two decades. She co-chairs the group responsible for the WHO Air Quality Guidelines, on which nations base their air quality standards.

In addition, she is Associate Editor of Science of the Total Environment journal, and in 2020.

Research[]

Her research involves studies in the area of applied physics, particularly in radiation physics, environmental physics, and atmospheric physics. Her research has been focused in the interdisciplinary field of air quality and its impact on human health and the environment, with a particular focus on the science of airborne particulate matter.[2][4]

Among her research she has studies the levels of atmospheric pollution in Australia and around the world, and the effect of the ultrafine particles on human health.

Her research interest and contribution fall into eight main areas: (i) Instrumental techniques for ultrafine particle detection in the air; (ii) Combustion as a source of urban atmospheric pollution; (iii) The science of ambient particle dynamics; (iv) Indoor Air Quality; (v) Lung Deposition; (vi) Risk assessment and mitigation; (vii) Developing and utilising advanced networks for air quality sensing and analyses; and (viii) particles from respiratory activities and infection control.

Examples of the funding she has received from different sources and for different research projects, are:

Funding for research projects
Year Project Funding
2020 “The Air is Fair, Here and There”: Queensland Communities Assessing and Comparing Air Quality Queensland Citizen Science
2019 Overcoming cultural and developmental barriers to transition towards cleaner energy practices in Oceania: A pilot study in Solomon Islands NHMRC CAR Seed Funding
2019 Airborne ultrafine particles in Australian cities ARC Linkage Projects
2018 Assessment of children's exposure to air pollution in Fiji, its drivers and the burden of disease attributable to it NHMRC CAR Seed Funding
2017 Establishing Advanced Networks for Air Quality Sensing and Analyses ARC Linkage Projects
2012 The Effects of Nano and Ultrafine Particles from Traffic Emissions on Children s Health (UPTECH) ARC Linkage Projects

COVID-19 research[]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Morawska assembled and led a multidisciplinary group of 239 scientists guiding public health authorities worldwide to recognize the significance of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus-laden particles and the risk it poses to human health.[5] Based on this work, the WHO and othernational authorities such as the US Centres for Disease Control, subsequently updated their advice regarding airborne transmission. In 2020, she became a Member of the Task Force on Workplace, School, and Travel Safety, The Lancet COVID Commission, looking into building-related risk factors which are a critical, but missing, component of SARS-CoV-2 outbreak investigations.

Ultrafine particle research[]

Her "Ultrafine Particles from Traffic Emissions and Children’s Health" project demonstrated that exposure to airborne ultrafine particles emitted in large quantities from vehicles was independently, positively associated with both systemic and respiratory inflammation and therefore has significant deleterious health impacts. In 2015, this evidence convinced the World Health Organization and individual countries to review national standards to protect children by controlling their exposure to ultrafine particles.  As a result, the they changed their Air Quality Guidelines to include recommendations regarding ultrafine particles.[6] 

Global Burden of Diseases studies[]

Since 2012, she has also contributed work on international scientific programs, such as the Global Burden of Disease studies which quantitatively assess the impact of exposure to air pollution as a disease risk.[7]

Honors and awards[]

Her scientific career has been recognized and awarded in multiple occasions by various organizations, among those are:[1][4]

  • 2021: ISIAQ Special 2020 Award for an Extraordinary Academic Leadership, International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate[8]
  • 2020: QUT Vice-Chancellors’ Award for Leadership Excellence, QUT Recognition Program
  • 2020: Ranked16,428 in the list of the 100,000 best scientists in the world according to the Stanford University.
  • November 2020: Recognition by The Sydney Morning Herald as one of the best scientists in the area of health and science.[9]
  • September 2020: Nominee in the list of the Top 40 Australian scientists by the Australian Research Magazine.[10]
  • May 2020: Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.[11]
  • 2018: Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research by the Australian Museum of Eureka Prizes.
  • 2017: David Sincalir Award by the American Association for Aerosol Research.
  • 2017: Queensland University of Technology Vice-Chancellor´s Performance Award.
  • 2011: Clean Air Medal by the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Selected works[]


She has more than 950 academic publications, including scientific articles, book chapters, and conference papers. Among the most cited publications are:[12]

With respect to her research on COVID-19, her main publications are:

  • Lidia Morawska, et al., “A paradigm shift to combat indoor respiratory infection”. Science, 372(6543):  689-691, 2021.[13]
  • Lidia Morawska and Donald Milton, “It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of COVID-19”. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 71(9): 2311-2313, 2020.[14]
  • Lidia Morawska, et al., Morawska et al., “How can airborne transmission of COVID-19 indoors be minimised?” Environ. Int., 142:105832, 2020.[15]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Mlorawska, Lidia. "Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska". Queensland University of Technology. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Australian Academy of Science (2021). "Professor Lidia Morawska". Australian Academy of Science. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  3. ^ Salas, Javier (19 July 2020). "El mayor riesgo se da en espacios cerrados y abarrotados, salvo si la ventilación es eficiente" [The biggest risk occurs in closed and crowded spaces, unless ventilation is efficient]. El Pais (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b University of Surrey. "Professor Lidia Morawska". University of Surrey. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  5. ^ Morawska, Lidia; Milton, Donald K (6 July 2020). "It Is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)". Clinical Infectious Diseases. 71 (9): 2311–2313. doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa939. ISSN 1058-4838. PMC 7454469. PMID 32628269.
  6. ^ Labbe, Chantal. "The Effects of Nano and Ultrafine Particles from Traffic Emissions on Children s Health (UPTECH)". International Laboratory for Air Quality & Health. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  7. ^ Labbe, Chantal. "Global Burden of Disease Studies". International Laboratory for Air Quality & Health. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  8. ^ "Special 2020 Award". www.isiaq.org. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  9. ^ Aubsson, Kate; Mannix, Liam (27 November 2020). "Good Weekend's 40 Australians Who Mattered: Health and Science". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  10. ^ "Research Superstars". The Australian Research. September 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  11. ^ "Australia's top scientists elected as Fellows of the Academy". Australian Academy of Science. 25 May 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  12. ^ "Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska". scholar.google.com.au. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  13. ^ Morawska, Lidia; Allen, Joseph; Bahnfleth, William; Bluyssen, Philomena M.; Boerstra, Atze; Buonanno, Giorgio; Cao, Junji; Dancer, Stephanie J.; Floto, Andres; Franchimon, Francesco; Greenhalgh, Trisha (14 May 2021). "A paradigm shift to combat indoor respiratory infection". Science. 372 (6543): 689–691. Bibcode:2021Sci...372..689M. doi:10.1126/science.abg2025. PMID 33986171. S2CID 234487289.
  14. ^ Morawska, Lidia; Milton, Donald K (6 July 2020). "It Is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)". Clinical Infectious Diseases. 71 (9): 2311–2313. doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa939. ISSN 1058-4838. PMC 7454469. PMID 32628269.
  15. ^ Morawska, Lidia; et al. (1 September 2020). "How can airborne transmission of COVID-19 indoors be minimised?". Environment International. 142: 105832. doi:10.1016/j.envint.2020.105832. ISSN 0160-4120. PMC 7250761. PMID 32521345.

External links[]

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