Professor Sotiris Vardoulakis

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

Sotiris Vardoulakis is Professor of Global Environmental Health at the ANU National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, which he joined in September 2019 from the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh where he was Director of Research and Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Occupational Health. Sotiris is founding co-chair of the International Consortium for Urban Environmental Health and Sustainability (Healthy-Polis) and Honorary Professor at the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at University of Exeter Medical School. Previously he was Head of the Environmental Change Department at Public Health England and held academic positions at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Birmingham. 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. Over the last 20 years, he has advised national and local governments and international organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the European Parliament, on the health effects of climate change and air pollution, and on environmental sustainability and urban health. Sotiris has been involved in numerous research projects, including field studies, environmental modelling, risk assessment and policy analysis in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. His main research interests include climate change and health, air pollution and health, sustainable cities, sustainable transport, exposure assessment, epidemiology, health impact assessment, and environmental public health communication and policy. He is specialty chief editor (Health and Cities) for Frontiers in Sustainable Cities.

Research interests

  • Climate change and health
  • Air pollution and health
  • Urban health
  • Sustainable cities
  • Global environmental health
  • Environmental pollution 
  • Sustainable development
  • Environmental health policy 
  • 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: 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.