Mr. Spengler was a panelist for the Forum’s discussion on Climate Change.
John Spengler is the Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment and Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He has conducted research in the areas of personal monitoring, air pollution health effects, aerosol characterization, indoor air pollution and air pollution meteorology.
In addition to his academic and research activities, Spengler has been active in professional education workshops, distance learning and short courses on topics that include pollution prevention and indoor environmental quality management for schools, offices and hospitals.
He serves as an advisor to several global organizations, including the World Health Organization, where he contributes information on indoor air pollution, personal exposure and air pollution epidemiology. He has served as either a member or consultant on various U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board committees.
He co-founded the Harvard Green Campus Initiative in 2000, chaired the university-wide committee on Harvard Sustainability Principles, and served on President Faust’s Harvard Greenhouse Gases Taskforce to develop the university’s carbon reduction goals and strategies.
In 2003, Spengler received a Heinz Award for the Environment. In 2008, he received the Max von Pettenkofer award for distinguished contributions in indoor air science from the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate’s Academy of Fellows.
More recently, he received a 2012 Haagen-Smit Prize. This annual prize is given to two outstanding papers published in the journal Atmospheric Environment. The award recognized a 1985 paper co-authored by Dr. Spengler and Dr. George Thurston, a 1983 Harvard graduate, titled “Quantitative Assessment of Source Contributions to Inhalable Particular Matter Pollution in Metropolitan Boston.”
Spengler received a B.S. degree in physics (1966) from the University of Notre Dame, a Ph.D. degree in atmospheric sciences (1971) from the State University of New York-Albany, and a M.S. degree in environmental health sciences (1973) from Harvard University.
