Professor Sotiris Vardoulakis

Professor of Global Environmental Health
National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health

Sotiris Vardoulakis is inaugural Professor of Global Environmental Health and Director of the NHMRC Healthy Environments And Lives (HEAL) National Research Network. He leads the Environment, Climate, and Health Group at the ANU National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health.

Previously, Sotiris held a number of senior academic, civil service and consultancy positions in the UK. He was Director of Research and Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Occupational Health at the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh, Head of the Environmental Change Department, and of the Air Pollution and Climate Change Groups at Public Health England, and lecturer and course director at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Birmingham. He is currently Honorary Professor at the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at the University of Exeter Medical School, and Adjunct Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

Sotiris co-founded and co-chaired the International Consortium for Urban Environmental Health and Sustainability (Healthy-Polis), and the Clean Environment and Planetary Health in Asia (CEPHA) network. He was one of the lead authors of the first UK Climate Change Risk Assessment and contributor to the National Adaptation Programme. He served as a member of the NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, UK) Public Health Advisory Committee on Air Pollution, the UK Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Group on Indoor Air Quality. He is a currently a Coordinating Lead Author of the UNEP Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-7) and of the WHO Climate Change and Urban Health Guide.

For more than 20 years, he has advised national and local governments and international organizations, such as the World Health Organization, the European Parliament, the UK Government, and the Australian Department of Health, on the health effects of climate change, air pollution, and extreme events, and on sustainable development, health impact assessment, risk communication, and public health. Sotiris has been involved in numerous research projects, including field studies, environmental monitoring and modelling, epidemiology, risk assessment, evidence reviews, and policy analysis in Europe, Australia, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.

His main research interests include climate change adaptation, air pollution and health, sustainable cities, exposure assessment, environmental epidemiology, occupational hygiene, and public health communication and policy. He is Specialty Chief Editor (Health and Cities) for Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, and Associate Editor (Climate Change and Health) for the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Sotiris frequently comments in the media (@SotirisVard).

Research interests

  • Climate change and health
  • Air pollution and health
  • Urban health
  • Sustainable cities
  • Global environmental health
  • Environmental pollution 
  • Sustainable development
  • Environmental health policy 
  • Somboonsin, P, Vardoulakis, S & Canudas Romo, V 2023, 'A comparative study of life-years lost attributable to air particulate matter in Asia-Pacific and European countries', Chemosphere, vol. 338, pp. 1-11.
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.139420
  • Walsh, E, Sargent, G, Cevik-Compiegne, B et al. 2022, 'Bushfire Smoke and Children's Health-Exploring a Communication Gap', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 19, no. 19.
  • McClymont, H, Bambrick, H, Si, X et al. 2022, 'Future perspectives of emerging infectious diseases control: A One Health approach', One Health, vol. 14, no. 100371.
  • Beggs, P, Zhang, Y, McGushin, A et al. 2022, 'The 2022 report of the MJA–Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: Australia unprepared and paying the price', Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 217, no. 9, pp. 439-458.
  • Heaviside, C, Witham, C & Vardoulakis, S 2021, 'Potential health impacts from sulphur dioxide and sulphate exposure in the UK resulting from an Icelandic effusive volcanic eruption', Science of the Total Environment, vol. 774, pp. 1-9.
  • Mueller, W, Tantrakarnapa, K, Johnston, H et al. 2021, 'Exposure to ambient particulate matter and biomass burning during pregnancy: associations with birth weight in Thailand', Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, vol. 31, pp. 672ââ¬â682.
  • Heaney, E, Hunter, L, Clulow, A et al. 2021, 'Efficacy of communication techniques and health outcomes of bushfire smoke exposure: A scoping review', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 18, no. 20, pp. 1-14.
  • Rodney Harris, R, Swaminathan, A, Calear, A et al. 2021, 'Physical and Mental Health Effects of Bushfire and Smoke in the Australian Capital Territory 2019�20', Frontiers in Public Health, vol. 9, p. 13.
  • Mueller, W, Vardoulakis, S, Steinle, S et al. 2021, 'A health impact assessment of long-term exposure to particulate air pollution in Thailand', Environmental Research Letters, vol. 16, no. 5.
  • Todkill, D, de Jesus Colon Gonzalez, F, Morbey, R et al. 2020, 'Environmental factors associated with general practitioner consultations for allergic rhinitis in London, England: A retrospective time series analysis', BMJ Open, vol. 10, no. 12.
  • Santiago, J, Sanchez, B, Quaassdorf, C et al. 2020, 'Performance evaluation of a multiscale modelling system applied to particulate matter dispersion in a real traffic hot spot in Madrid (Spain)', Atmospheric Pollution Research, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 141-155.
  • Mueller, W, Steinle, S, Parkka, J et al 2020, 'Urban greenspace and the indoor environment: Pathways to health via indoor particulate matter, noise, and road noise annoyance', Environmental Research, vol. 180, no. 108850, pp. 1-13.
  • Lauriola, P, Crabbe, H, Behbod, B et al 2020, 'Advancing Global Health through Environmental and Public Health Tracking', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 1-19.
  • Vardoulakis, S, Jalaludin, B, Morgan, G et al 2020, 'Bushfire smoke: urgent need for a national health protection strategy', Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 212, no. 8, pp. 349-353.
  • Vardoulakis, S, Marks, G & Abramson, M 2020, 'Lessons Learned from the Australian Bushfires: Climate Change, Air Pollution, and Public Health', JAMA Internal Medicine, vol. 180, no. 5, pp. 635-636.
  • Vardoulakis, S, Marks, G & Abramson, M 2020, 'Lessons Learned from the Australian Bushfires: Climate Change, Air Pollution, and Public Health', JAMA Internal Medicine, vol. 180, no. 5, pp. 635-636.
  • Vardoulakis, S, Sheel, M, Lal, A et al. 2020, 'COVID-19 environmental transmission and preventive public health measures', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, vol. Online.
  • Vardoulakis, S, Salmond, J, Krafft, T et al. 2020, 'Urban environmental health interventions towards the Sustainable Development Goals', Science of the Total Environment, vol. 748, pp. 1-4.
  • Mueller, W, Loh, M, Vardoulakis, S et al. 2020, 'Ambient particulate matter and biomass burning: an ecological time series study of respiratory and cardiovascular hospital visits in northern Thailand', Environmental Health, vol. 19, no. 77, pp. 1-12.
  • Arbuthnott, K, Hajat, S, Heaviside, C et al. 2020, 'Years of life lost and mortality due to heat and cold in the three largest English cities', Environment International, vol. 144, pp. 1-9.
  • Cooper, N, Green, D, Guo, Y et al. 2020, 'School children's exposure to indoor fine particulate matter', Environmental Research Letters, vol. 15, no. 11, pp. 1-13.
  • Zeka, A, Tobias, A, Leonardi, G et al. 2020, 'Responding to COVID-19 requires strong epidemiological evidence of environmental and societal determining factors', The Lancet, vol. 4, no. 9, pp. 375-376.
  • Johnston, H, Mueller, W, Steinle, S et al 2019, 'How Harmful Is Particulate Matter Emitted from Biomass Burning? A Thailand Perspective', Current Pollution Reports, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 353-377.
  • Almendra, R, Santana, P, Mitsakou, C et al 2019, 'Cold-related mortality in three European metropolitan areas: Athens, Lisbon and London. Implications for health promotion', Urban Climate, vol. 30, pp. 1-9T.
  • Morawska, L, Millers, W, Riley, M et al. 2019, 'Towards Urbanome the genome of the city to enhance the form and function of future cities', Nature Communications, vol. 10, no. 4014, pp. 1-3.
  • Carnell, E, Vieno, M, Vardoulakis, S et al 2019, 'Modelling public health improvements as a result of air pollution control policies in the UK over four decades - 1970 to 2010', Environmental Research Letters, vol. 14, no. 7, pp. 1-12.
  • Vardoulakis, S, Dear, K, Hajat, S et al. 2014, 'Comparative Assessment of the Effects of Climate Change on Heat-and Cold-Related Mortality in the United Kingdom and Australia', Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 122, no. 12, pp. 1285-1292.
  • Vardoulakis, S, Shrubsole, C, Milner, J et al 2012, 'Public health outcomes of climate change mitigation and adaptation policies in the built environment', 10th International Conference on Healthy Buildings 2012, Curran Associates, Inc., Brisbane, QLD, pp. 687-692pp.
  • Ochieng, C, Vardoulakis, S & Tonne, C 2012, 'Assessing improved biomass stoves as an intervention for reducing indoor air pollution exposure in rural Kenya', 10th International Conference on Healthy Buildings 2012, Curran Associates, Inc., Brisbane, QLD, pp. 471-476pp.