University of Tasmania
Fay Johnston is a public health physician and environmental epidemiologist. Her major work is in air quality and health, especially relating to the health impacts of bushfire smoke, biomass smoke, pollen and other airborne hazards. She is lead investigator of the Centre for Safe Air.
Professor Graeme Zosky is the Associate Dean Research Performance for the College of Health and Medicine at the University of Tasmania. Professor Zosky is an expert in the underlying mechanisms that drive the health effects of exposure to pollution, particularly inhaled particulates in community and occupational settings. Professor Zosky’s research program spans lab-based, epidemiological and clinical approaches to address public health challenges related to safe air.
Dr Bill Dodd is a science communicator specialising in the translation of new research into materials and media for decision makers, health consumers and the general public. He has been a lecturer in journalism, media and communications at the University of Tasmania, and is author of the book Solutions Journalism published by Lexington Books. He has worked closely with the Tasmanian Department of Health as part of the Tasmanian Public Health Research Action Coalition (TasPHRAC) in relation to nutrition, active living, tobacco control, and air quality. His writing has appeared in The Conversation, The Canberra Times, Renew Economy, The Examiner, Al Jazeera, The Japan Times and Forty Degrees South.
Penny Jones holds dual positions as a Senior Research Fellow in Environmental Health at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research and a Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences in the School of Natural Sciences. She has a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary background, combining government experience in environmental policy with research spanning fire ecology, palaeoecology, archaeology, aerobiology and most recently, environmental health. Currently, her core research focus is the intersection of the atmospheric environment and human health, particularly in terms of pollen, poor air quality and the aerial microbiome, and she has played a lead role in the AirRater smartphone application. She is also passionate about teaching, and developed and now coordinates the unit KPZ104 Living with Fire.
Nicolás Borchers Arriagada is a Sohn Hearts and Minds Research Fellow and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at UTAS. He is multidisciplinary data scientist and industrial engineer, specialised in environmental and medical sciences. He is a post doctoral research fellow with the Centre for Safe Air. His work intersects modelling, public health, health economics, bushfire management, and more broadly risks of climate related and extreme weather events. During his PhD he assessed the health burden of bushfire smoke in Australia and is currently working on novel methods to improve and refine population exposure estimates to wood heater smoke and landscape fire smoke PM2.5, assess the health burden of different climate related extreme events, and on using health economic and visualisation techniques to better communicate policy-related research.
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