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Welcome!

I am Professor of Environmental Sciences & Engineering at UNC.

I conduct interdisciplinary research on air pollution and climate change, linking with health, energy and policy. The following topics are interesting to me:

  • modeling of ozone and particles on urban, regional and global scales
  • global atmospheric composition and radiative forcing of climate
  • air pollution science and management
  • integrated assessment
  • health impact assessment
  • international air pollution transport
  • integrated planning of air pollution and climate mitigation

Highlights

March 27, 2024.  Congratulations to Byron Rice for successfully defending his MS research today!

November 14, 2023.  I’m proud to be in Washington DC for the rollout of the Fifth National Climate Assessment today.  I was happy to have the opportunity to lead the Air Quality chapter.

March 21, 2023.  Congratulations to Stephanie Cleland for successfully defending her PhD today!

May 6, 2022.  Congratulations to Nicole Egerstrom for defending her MSPH research today!

March 23, 2022.  Revathi Muralidharan defended her MS thesis today.  Congratulations!

November 10, 2021.  My new piece for COP26 Glasgow appeared today in The Hill “Climate talks can solve another global crisis: air pollution

July 7, 2021.  You can now watch my Nature Conference presentation “Ending the 20th Century Plague of Fossil-Fueled Air Pollution with 21st Century Action on Climate Change”

June 3, 2021. A new paper led by Tim Glotfelty finds problems with land surface models commonly used in WRF, for applications in Africa addressing the effects of land use and land cover change on regional climate.  And Tim modified one such model (CLM) to do it better.

April 19, 2021. Congratulations to Duncan Quevedo for successfully defending his BSPH honors thesis!

April 14, 2021. Congratulations to Jacob Becker for successfully defending his MS thesis!

March 8, 2021. Our new paper appeared today on mapping global ground-level ozone concentrations to inform the Global Burden of Disease 2019.  Great work led by Marissa DeLang and Jacob Becker, produced ozone estimates annually 1990-2017 at fine resolution (0.1 degree).  Contact me if you’re interested in using the data.

UNC press release

January 5, 2021.  A new paper led by Yuqiang Zhang quantifies the contributions of changes in emissions from different world regions on the global tropospheric burden change from 1980 to 2010 – highlighting the importance of tropical emissions.

December 1, 2020. UNC press release on our new NSF grant analyzing electric power, air pollution, and hydrology during droughts.  Happy to work on this with Jordan Kern, Tamlin Pavelsky, Jared Bowden, Andy Yates, MacKenzie Skiles, and Greg Characklis.

October 16, 2020. Stephanie Cleland’s new paper appeared today on mapping smoke concentrations from the 2017 California wildfires.

May 12, 2020. Congratulations to Tammy Xu for defending her MSPH thesis!

April 8, 2020. Congratulations to Marissa DeLang for defending her MSEE thesis!

April 1, 2020. Congratulations to Stephanie Cleland for defending her MSPH thesis!

February 19, 2020. Yang Ou’s new paper appeared in Nature Communications today, on pathways to reduce air pollution-related deaths in the US at low cost.

The Conversation

UNC press release

September 13, 2019. My explainer in The Conversation appeared today on “Why CO2 has such outsized influence on Earth’s Climate”.

September 3, 2019. Congratulations to Dr. Yang Ou for successfully defending his PhD!

May 2, 2019. I wrote with Barb Turpin in The Conversation today on EPA current actions to attack the science underlying air quality standards.

October 19, 2018. Yuqiang Zhang’s new paper appeared today in Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics, on the effects of reductions in ozone and PM2.5 since 1990 on mortality in the US. press release

NY Times

UPI

September 13, 2018. My op-ed appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer, about hurricanes & climate change, just ahead of Hurricane Florence.

August 14, 2018. Congratulations to Dr. Ciao Kai Liang for successfully defending his PhD!

July 23, 2018. Ciao Kai Liang’s new paper appeared today in Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics, on the health implications of long-range air pollution transport and the importance of different emission sectors for global health here.

June 13, 2018. Congratulations to Omar Nawaz for successfully defending his MS!

March 29, 2018. I have prepared a mainstream climate scientist’s response to climate skeptic William Happer’s lecture in Chapel Hill here.

March 16, 2018. Come out for UNC’s 5th annual Climate Change Symposium on April 20 in the afternoon!

November 14, 2017. Yuqiang Zhang’s new paper on the co-benefits of global greenhouse gas reductions for US air quality and health appeared today in Environmental Research Letters here. press release

Phys.org

Newsweek

Telegraph India

July 31, 2017. Raquel Silva’s new paper on the impacts of climate change on global air pollution and human mortality appeared in Nature Climate Change today here. press release

CBS News

The Conversation

PBS Newshour

Philadelphia Inquirer / HealthDay

US News & World Report

New Zealand Herald

KPCC radio Los Angeles

WUNC

Chapelboro

UNC podcast

June 5, 2017. I posted a new ad for two new postdocs to join the CHAQ lab!

Apr. 7, 2017. Congratulations to Anne Corrigan for defending her MS thesis!

Mar. 14, 2017. Come out on Mar. 31 for UNC’s 4th annual Climate Change Symposium!

Nov. 7, 2016. Yuqiang Zhang’s paper on global tropospheric ozone and the importance of emission location appeared in Nature Geoscience today here. press release

Science Daily

CBC

Atlantic CityLab

scidev.net

Sept. 15, 2016. Jason on Public Health Minute.

July 22, 2016. Jason was named a member of NASA’s new Health-Air Quality Applied Sciences Team. press release

May 17, 2016. Feature paper from Jason and co-authors – on improving understanding of the health effects of air pollution – appears in ES&T here. The cover photo of the issue was taken by collaborator Tong Zhu. press release

May 13, 2016. Raquel Silva’s new paper on the importance of emissions sectors for global human health appeared online with Environmental Health Perspectives here. press release

April 8, 2016. Jason gives keynote talk at the 2016 NCBreathe conference.

March 28, 2016. Jason’s new climate change class for fall 2016 is intended to engage students from across campus.

March 8, 2016. Congratulations to Jenna Hartley for defending her MS degree!

January 8, 2016. Congratulations to Dr. Yuqiang Zhang for successfully defending his PhD!

July 16, 2015. Congratulations to Dr. Raquel Silva for successfully defending her PhD!

January 15, 2015. Jason was named a Leopold Leadership Fellow.

Sept. 22, 2014. Jason gives invited presentation at the IGAC / iCACGP meeting in Brazil. The presentation can be seen here.

October 3, 2013. Our new paper on the air pollution and health co-benefits of global greenhouse gas reductions is now published in Nature Climate Change. It has gotten some good press:

UNC press release

Guardian

CBS News

New Scientist

National Geographic

German Public Radio

July 16, 2013. Raquel Silva’s paper on global air pollution mortality came out last week, and has been getting some attention. Here are some links:

UNC press release

CNN

LA Times

Guardian

NASA image of the day