Register here before 7 March 2025 (in-person and online)
The Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) and the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) invited you to a public lecture by ASSAf Distinguished Visiting Scholar 2024/2025, Professor Kalpana Balakrishnan on Tuesday, 11 March 2025. Prof Balakrishnan is Dean (Research) and Director at the Sri Ramachandra Institute for Higher Education and Research in India. The title of her lecture is:
Creating seamless healthy breathing spaces for everyone:
An impractical dream or feasible reality?
Abstract: Air pollution ranks among the leading risk factors contributing to the disease burden globally, with low and middle income countries (LMICs) in South Asia and Africa facing enormous burdens on account of exposures to both ambient air pollution (AAP) and household air pollution (HAP). Mega-cities in LMICs often come to focus as being critically polluted and have remained as the focal point for national clean air programs. However, the insidious health damaging HAP exposures, resulting from continued reliance on solid cook-fuels that is experienced routinely by rural populations, have largely been missing from the air pollution discourse. Further, the scale and magnitude of the contributions form solid cook-fuel emissions to ambient air pollution has been under-recognized and poorly characterized. HAP interventions have thus not occupied a prominent role in ambient air pollution control strategies. Finally, transitioning poor populations from biomass cook-fuels to LPG has often been pitched as being inconsistent with the global “de-carbonization” and “fossil fuel phase out” goals.
Compartmentalized air quality management approaches that do not simultaneously address AAP and HAP in LMICs are ineffective and often exacerbate exposure and health inequities for vulnerable populations. The talk will provide a framework for equity centric, cohesive air quality actions that can achieve air quality, health and climate goals for both urban and rural populations in LMICs.
Biography: Prof Kalpana Balakrishnan is the Dean (Research) and Director at the Sri Ramachandra Institute for Higher Education and Research in India and is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). She acquired her undergraduate education at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India and subsequently her doctoral and post-doctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, USA.
She is a leading global environmental health researcher and has made seminal contributions for (i) developing novel exposure assessment approaches to characterize household and ambient air pollution exposures of rural and urban populations in low and middle income countries (ii) designing and conducting large scale cohort studies across multiple states in India, to generate primary data on exposure-response relationships for air pollution and health and (iii) building national and regional capacities for occupational and environmental health, through collaborative academic and training initiatives.
Dr. Balakrishnan has contributed as a technical expert for many international assessments including The World Health Organisation Air Quality Guidelines, The IARC Monographs and The Global Energy Assessments, The Global and India State Level Burden of Disease initiatives and the UNEP Asia Pacific Regional Assessments. She also serves in multiple national and global technical review committees for addressing air quality, climate, health and energy risks in developing countries.
She is a recipient of numerous awards including the Clarivate India Research Excellence Citation award (2021), the Public Health Foundation of India award (2008) for Outstanding Scientist in Public Health, The Hari Om Ashram Trust Award (2000) for Outstanding Scientist administered by the University Grants Commission, Govt. of India, the Outstanding Woman Scientist Award (1999) of The Government of Tamil Nadu and The Award for Excellence in Environmental Health Research (1998) administered by Harvard Medical International. She is also a distinguished fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences.
ASSAf Distinguished Visiting Scholars: STIAS has partnered with the Academy to present an annual public lecture as part of the Distinguished Visiting Scholar (DVS) Programme. ASSAf annually invites one or more distinguished scholars from abroad to present lectures at various higher education institutions around the country. The scholars are internationally prominent academics who are inspirational speakers and usually with an ability to bridge the divides between disciplines.