Keynote Speaker 2: Prashant Kumar
Keynote Speaker 2: Prashant Kumar – The rise of low-cost sensing for managing air pollution in cities
Conventional approaches to air quality monitoring are based on networks of static and sparse measurement stations. However, these are prohibitively expensive to capture tempo-spatial heterogeneity and identify pollution hotspots, which is required for the development of robust real-time strategies for exposure control. Current progress in developing low-cost micro-scale sensing technology is radically changing the conventional approach to allow real-time information in a capillary form. But the question remains whether there is value in the less accurate data they generate. This talk will discuss the drivers behind the current rise in the use of low-cost sensors for air pollution management in cities, their application for a diverse range of exposure scenarios, and address the major challenges for their effective implementation. Numerous publications on the topic area can be found within the list here: https://tinyurl.com/PKSensor
Prashant Kumar Founding Director, Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE) |  |
Prashant is a Professor and Chair in Air Quality and Health, founding Director of Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), at the University of Surrey, UK; and an Adjunct Professor at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He received his PhD (Engineering) from the University of Cambridge after securing Cambridge-Nehru Scholarship, and an MTech (Environmental Engineering & Management) from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. His multidisciplinary research builds an understanding of the formation, emission and exposure of particles, both from vehicle exhausts and non-vehicular sources. He investigates their contribution to pollution, especially in megacity contexts. He is developing approaches to low-cost sensing and contributing to the development of exposure control technology and guidelines for policymakers to curtail pollution exposure in cities, with associated health benefits. He has supervised >25 PhD/Postdocs, published >200 journal articles attracting >7500 citations (h-index, 47, i10index, 120). He is currently a PI/CoI on numerous NERC, EPSRC, Innovate UK and H2020 grants, securing >£7M in individual research funding. He serves editorial board of several journals, and reviews/advises as a panel member many funding agencies worldwide. He is convening Royal Society’s Rapid Assistance in Modelling the Pandemic (RAMP TT7-SG7) on COVID-19. His research has featured in well-read media outlets such as the BBC and The Times. Further information about him can be found at: www.surrey.ac.uk/gcare