Dr. George Thurston has a nationally and internationally recognized record of multi-disciplinary academic training and expertise in air quality, epidemiology, and exposure assessment. He is currently a tenured member of the faculty of the departments of Medicine and Population Health at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, where he directs the graduate program in Human Exposure and Health Effects. Professor Thurston was graduated from Brown University in Environmental Engineering (ScB) and Environmental Studies (AB). He subsequently received his Masters from Harvard University in Environmental Health Sciences, with a specialization in Air Pollution Meteorology, including graduate studies of Meteorology at MIT. He received his doctorate in Environmental Health Sciences from the Harvard School of Public Health, where his research was part of the landmark Harvard Six Cities air pollution study.
Dr. Thurston’s post-doctoral work at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government involved publishing the first study of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution and human mortality. He presently serves on the USEPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors and on the Policy Committee of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE). Dr. Thurston’s research has primarily focused on the human health effects of air pollution, especially regarding fine particles as a function of their composition and sources. This has involved studies of air pollution exposures and their health effects in panels of individual human subjects, such as children with asthma, as well as large national cohorts of adults. In the last two decades, after his participation at COP5 in 1999, he has also published regarding the clean air health benefits of climate mitigation action.
In the past two years, his research has been funded by the National Institute of Environmental Sciences, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Heinz Endowment. As an active member in multiple scientific and medical societies, Dr. Thurston has led efforts to bring scientists and physicians together to reach consensus on key environmental health issues. This has included leading the development and publishing of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and European Respiratory Society (ERS) Statement on “What Constitutes an Adverse Effect of Air Pollution”, as well as organizing and hosting the recent ISEE endorsed pre-COP28 Workshop on “Climate Change and Health” in November, 2023 at the NYU campus in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
