On May 26th, 2019, the appointment ceremony of Tsinghua Honorary Professor Kirk Robert Smith was held in School of Environment, Tsinghua University. Prof. Kebin HE, Dean of the School of Environment, and invited faculty members, alumni, and students attended the ceremony. The ceremony was chaired by Professor Wang Shuxiao, Director of State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Sources and Control of Air Pollution Complex.
Professor He Kebin briefly introduced Professor Kirk Robert Smith’s distinguished achievements and his long collaborations with Tsinghua University. He warmly welcomed Prof. Smith joining Tsinghua and expected him to play an important role in advancing the teaching and research of environmental engineering in Tsinghua University. Then he delivered the “Honorary Professor” Appointment Certificate of Tsinghua University to Professor Smith.
In the acceptance speech, Professor Smith accepted the appointment, and said that he felt much honored to be a member of Tsinghua University. Then he highly spoke of Tsinghua University and shared his and his uncle’s story with China, with Tsinghua. He highlighted the great progress in China's air pollution control and reviewed the long-term cooperation with Tsinghua University in studies on air pollution exposure assessment. He also highly spoke the high level of research, faculty and student development at School of Environment and looked forward to the continued in-depth exchanges and cooperation with Tsinghua University in the future.
In his keynote speech following the ceremony, Professor Smith introduced the frontier research on air pollution exposure, highlighted the characteristics of air pollution exposure in India, China and California, and proposed optimal effective measures for ambient air pollution control with focus on exposure assessment from source exposure with an example of the California approach, where community groups are trained and were allowed to voluntarily participate in monitoring exposure in their neighborhood, with a goal of not leaving some populations out who are receiving high exposures.
The invitation of Professor Smith to be the “Honorary Professor” of Tsinghua University will greatly promote the development of our school's environmental health discipline, enhance the international influence of our school's relevant research, and even increase the general public's awareness of health impact of exposure to air pollution.
Reported by Huang Guanghan