Jason West

Jason West, PhD is a Professor of Environmental Sciences & Engineering at the University of North Carolina's Gillings School of Global Public Health. His research focuses on interdisciplinary studies of air pollution and climate change, linking atmospheric chemistry models with health and policy analysis. He holds roles including membership in the Scientific Steering Committee of the International Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution, editorships of environmental journals, and leadership in UNECE's health effects working group.

Education: PhD from Carnegie Mellon University (1998), MPhil from University of Cambridge (1995), MS from Carnegie Mellon (1994), and BSE from Duke University (1993).

Research Interests: Modeling ozone and particulate matter on global scales, radiative forcing of climate, health impact assessment, and policy analysis for air pollution mitigation. Notable contributions include quantifying air pollution's co-benefits with climate change mitigation and leading global ozone distribution mapping efforts.

Recent Work Trends: Focus on wildfire smoke impacts, drought-air quality linkages, machine learning applications in ozone research, and global health burden assessments using integrated data fusion methods. Over 50 peer-reviewed publications since 2013, emphasizing transdisciplinary approaches to environmental health challenges.

Awards: Leopold Leadership Fellow (2015), NASA Health-AQAST team member (2016), and 2023 Gillings School awards for mentorship and research.

Advising/Grants: Supervised over 15 graduate students since 2017, led NSF grants on drought-air quality connections and wildfire health impacts. Active in international collaborations like the Fifth National Climate Assessment's Air Quality chapter leadership.

Labs/Teams: CHAQ (Climate-Air Quality) Lab at UNC, part of Gillings School's Environmental Sciences and Engineering department. Collaborates with NASA, NOAA, and international agencies on atmospheric modeling and health metrics.