Biography
Roy Harrison started his academic career as a chemist, gaining both BSc and PhD degrees from the University of Birmingham. He then undertook postdoctoral work at Imperial College in the Department of Civil Engineering working on air pollution by heavy metals. Subsequently he took up a lectureship in atmospheric chemistry at Lancaster University where his work focused on particulate air pollutants and photo oxidants. In 1984 he moved to the University of Essex as Reader and Director of the Institute of Aerosol Science, pursuing both laboratory-based research on the physical properties of combustion aerosols and largely field-based work in the chemistry of airborne particulate matter. In 1989 he was awarded the degree of DSc in Environmental Chemistry of the University of Birmingham.
He moved to the University of Birmingham in 1991 to take up the newly created post of Queen Elizabeth II Birmingham Centenary Professor of Environmental Health, becoming Director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Health in 1994, and in 1999 Head of the Division of Environmental Health and Risk Management. He has played an active role outside the University as Chairman of the Quality of Urban Air Review Group for the Department of Environment and the Airborne Particles Expert Group for the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions and is currently a member of Defra’s Science Advisory Council). He has been a member of the DETR (now DEFRA) Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards (now the COMEAP Sub-Committee on Standards) since 1991 and is currently Deputy Chairman. He is a member of the Department of Health Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants and DEFRA Air Quality Expert Group. He has also served on numerous other committees including the Natural Environment Research Council’s Atmospheric Science and Technology Board, the HEFCE RAE 2001 Earth & Environmental Sciences Panel and RAE 2008 Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences Panel, the Medical Research Council Advisory Board, NERC Peer Review College and the Natural Environment Research Council's Science & Innovation Strategy Board. He is currently NERC Theme Leader for Environment, Pollution and Human Health.
Roy Harrison is listed by ISI Thomson Scientific (on ISI Web of Knowledge) as a Highly Cited Researcher in the Environmental Science/Ecology category. He has an h-index of 54 (i.e. 54 of his papers have received 54 or more citations in the literature). In 2004 he was appointed OBE for services to environmental science in the New Year Honours List. He was profiled by the Journal of Environmental Monitoring (Vol 5, pp 39N-41N, 2003).
National Centre for Atmospheric Science: Roy Harrison leads the Birmingham node of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science. This is funded by NERC as part of the Directorate for Atmospheric Composition of the distributed Centre.
Postgraduate supervision
Research Students since 2001
Paul Sanderson – Ambient characterisation of nanoparticle exposures
Lami Karimatu Abdullahi – Measurement and modelling of exposure to air toxics and verification by biomarker
Adewale Taiwo – Source apportionment of air pollution
Jon Dredge – Aerosol contributions to speleothem chemistry
Ian Keyte – Sources and pr5operties of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the UK atmosphere
Barbara Macias Hernandez – Personal exposure to toxic substances
Massimiliano Mascelloni – In quest of new fingerprints of exposure to VOC from consumer products
Pallavi Pant – Source apportionment of airborne particulate matter in India
Suad Al Kindi - Artificial chemical aging of atmospheric particles
Krystal Godri - Chemical composition and toxicity of airborne particulate matter (joint project with Kings College, London)
Bunthoon Laongsri - Measurement and source apportionment of airborne particulate matter
Asma Zakaria – Congenital malformation in relation to air quality in Malaysia
Lihua Wilson Hu – Biomass burning contribution to airborne particle concentrations
Sai Ho David Ho - Pollution of outdoor and indoor environments by volatile organic compounds
Wing Yip Lee – Application of mass spectrometry to air pollutant characterisation
Anna Lia Presicci – Evolution of particle size distributions in urban air
Mr Salah Saeed Abdalmogith - Processes affecting secondary aerosol in the atmosphere
Mr Manuel Dall’Osto - Studies of atmospheric aerosol by single particle mass spectrometry
Miss Alexia Economopoulou – Development of graphical models of abatement devices for use in constructing emissions inventories
Mr Siwat Pongpiajun - Sources and atmospheric chemistry of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
Mr Noel Aquilina - Measurement and modelling of exposure to air toxics and verification by biomarker
Mr Wayne Smith – High time resolution chemical fingerprinting of particulate emissions from the steel industry
Mr Alistair Thorpe – The coarse fraction of airborne particles
Aftab Alam - Formation and processes affecting particles in the atmosphere
Sarah Baggott - Numerical modelling of atmospheric chemistry in the West Midlands
Doug Evans - The generation of model aerosols for human exposure studies
Ben Marner - Atmospheric nitrogen deposition to a nitrate vulnerable zone
Jianxin Yin - Monitoring of airborne particulate mass and number concentrations in the UK atmosphere
Bendita Lachmansingh - An investigation of the health impacts of air pollution upon vulnerable population subgroups
Rob Tilling - Source-receptor modelling of particulate matter in the urban atmosphere
Research
Current and completed projects
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Artificial chemical ageing of ambient atmospheric aerosol
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Novel compact after treatment systems for simultaneous reduction of diesel engine NOx, PM, CO and HC emissions
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Use of chemical composition and molecular markers to infer the sources of airborne particulate matter
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Health implications of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in indoor environment
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Sources and atmospheric processes determining airborne concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their degradation products
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Diesel particulate filter regeneration with on-board produced hydrogen-rich gas
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Risks of Airborne ParTiclES (RAPTES)
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Links between urban and ambient particulate matter and health-particle metrics
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Determinants of oxidative potential, a health-based metric to assess particulate matter toxicity
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Understanding the fate of traffic-generated particles
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The formation and characterisation of secondary organic aerosol
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European Supersites for Atmospheric Aerosol Research (EUSAAR)
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European Integrated Project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality (EUCAARI)
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Airborne particle concentrations and numbers in the United Kingdom
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Characterisation of emission and impact of ultrafine particulate matter
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Measurement and modelling of exposure to air toxics and verification by biomarker
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Network on nanoparticles at the science and engineering/medicine interface
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High time-resolution chemical fingerprinting of particulate emissions from the steel industry
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Design, implementation, synthesis and interpretation of the field measurements in funded UK field programmes
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A novel instrument to measure molecular clusters and newly nucleated particles in the atmosphere
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Relationship of ultrafine and fine particles in indoor and outdoor respiratory health (RUPIOH)
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Nature and origin of PM10 and smaller particulate matter in the urban air
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Processes affecting the size distribution of fine particles in diesel exhaust and ambient air
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Processes responsible for the formation of new particles within the atmosphere
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Studies of the atmospheric bio-aerosol
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Development of air quality management models for the West Midlands and South-East England
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Improved parameterisation of atmospheric chemistry in numerical models
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Oxidant and particle chemistry in the marine atmosphere
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Source apportionment of airborne particulate matter
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Temporal trends in lead exposure and population blood leads
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Processes affecting fine and ultrafine particles in the urban atmosphere
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Personal exposure to airborne particulate matter, volatile organic compounds and nitrogen dioxide
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Indoor-outdoor relationships of particulate air pollutants and VOC
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Epidemiological studies of the effects of particulate matter on human health
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Clinical studies of the effects of particulate matter and sulphur dioxide on human health
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The effect of airports on respiratory health in the general population
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The atmospheric chemistry of nitrogen compounds
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Composition, sources and properties of the organic component of urban airborne particulate matter
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Source apportionment of urban airborne PAH
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Processes influencing contrail formation in jet engine exhaust
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Application of single particle mass spectrometry to atmospheric aerosol characterisation
Much of this research is collaborative with Dr Stuart Harrad, Dr Bill Bloss, and Professor Jamie Lead. Together, the activity comprises probably the largest University-based air pollution research group in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. We also collaborate extensively with other research groups from the UK and mainland Europe. Specific recent collaborations include the following:
RAPTES - Risks of Airborne ParTiclES: National Institute for Public Health, Environment (RIVM), Netherlands, Utrecht University, Kings College (London), University of Birmingham
RUPIOH – Universities of Utrecht, Helsinki, Birmingham, Athens, Finnish Meteorological Institute & Institute of Public Health, ECN (Netherlands) and National Observatory of Athens.
Health Effects Research – University of Aberdeen, St. George’s Hospital Medical School and University of Birmingham (School of Medicine).
EUSAAR (European Supersites for Atmospheric Aerosol Research) - CNRS, Paul Scherrer Institut, University of Stockholm, JRC-Commission of the European Community, TNO-Netherlands, Leibniz Institut für Troposphärenforschung e.V., NILU-Norway, ISAC-CNR-Italy, University of Helsinki, National University of Ireland-Galway, University of Crete, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Pannon University-Hungary, Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals AS CR-Czech Republic, University of Heidelberg, Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physics-Lithuania, Lunds Universitet, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas-Spain, Hoffmann Messtechnik GmbH
EUCAARI - Universities of Helsinki, Leeds, Lund, Veszprém, Oslo, Copenhagen, East Anglia, Copenhagen, Kuopio, Manchester, Sao Paolo-Brazil, Crete, Stockholm, Warsaw, Aveiro, Tarto, Mainz, Peking, Aegean, North-West University-South Africa, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, National University of Ireland-Galway, The French National Center for Scientific Research, Max Planck Institute (Meteorology & Chemistry), Institute for Tropospheric Research, Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, Netherlands Royal Meteorological Institute, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Joint Research Centre of the EU Commission, UK Met Office, Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Paul Scherrer Institute, Institute of Chemical Engineering in Patras, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, French Meteorological Service, Research Centre Jülich, The Energy and Resources Institute-India, Airel AS (Ltd), German Aerospace Center, The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Chinese Academic of Meteorological Sciences, Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences, Risø National Laboratory, German Weather Service
Professor Harrison has been involved in a number of research projects (PDF - 52KB)
Publications
Recent publications
See a full list of publications since 2001 (PDF - 192KB)
Peer-Reviewed Journal Papers
New Considerations for PM, Black Carbon and Particle Number Concentration for Air Quality Monitoring Across Different European Cities, C. Reche, X. Querol, A. Alastuey, M. Viana, J. Pey, T. Moreno, S. Rodriguez, Y. Gonzalez, R. Fernandez-Camacho, A.M. Sanchez de la Campa, J. de la Rosa, M. Dall’Osto, A.S.H. Prevot, C. Hueglin, R.M. Harrison and P. Quincey, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 6207-6227 (2011).
Variation in Characteristics of Ambient Particulate Matter at Eight Locations in the Netherlands – The RAPTES Project, M. Strak, M. Steenhof , K.J. Godri, I. Gosens, I.S. Mudway, F.R. Cassee, E. Lebret., B. Brunekreef , F.J. Kelly, R.M. Harrison, G. Hoek and N.A.H. Janssen, Atmos. Environ., 45, 4442-4453 (2011).
General Overview: European Integrated Project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality Interactions (EUCAARI) – Integrating Aerosol Research from Nano to Global Scales, Kulmala, A. Asmi, H. K. Lappalainen, D. C. S. Beddows, R. M. Harrison, and many others, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 11, 17941-18160 (2011).
PMF Analysis of Wide-Range Particle Size Spectra Collected on a Major Highway, R.M. Harrison, D.C.S. Beddows and M. Dall’osto, Environ. Sci. Technol., 5522-5528 (2011).
Preliminary Estimates of Nanoparticle Number Emissions from Road Vehicles in Megacity Delhi and Associated Health Impacts, P. Kumar, B.R. Gurjar, A.K Nagpure and R.M. Harrison, Environ. Sci. & Technol., 5514-5521 (2011).
Properties of Coarse Particles in the Atmosphere of the United Kingdom, J.-Y. Liu and R.M. Harrison, Atmos. Environ., 45, 3267-3276 (2011).
Urban Organic Aerosols Measured by Single Particle Mass Spectrometry in the Megacity of London, M. Dall’Ostoand R.M. Harrison, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 11, 5043-5078 (2011).
Application of 14C Analyses to Source Apportionment of Carbonaceous PM2.5 in the UK, M.R. Heal, P. Naysmith, G.T. Cook, S. Xu, T. Raventos Duran and R.M. Harrison, Atmos. Environ., 45, 2341-2348 (2011).
Number Size Distributions and seasonality of Submicron Particles in Europe 2008–2009, A. Asmi, A. Wiedensohler, P. Laj, A.-M. Fjaeraa, K. Sellegri, W. Birmili, E. Weingartner, U. Baltensperger, V. Zdimal, N. Zikova, J.-P. Putaud, A. Marinoni, P. Tunved, H.-C. Hansson, M. Fiebig, N. Kivekas, H. Lihavainen, E. Asmi, V. Ulevicius, P.P. Aalto, E. Swietlicki, A. Kristensson, N. Mihalopoulos, N. Kalivitis, I. Kalapov, G. Kiss, G. Deleeuw, B. Henzing, R.M. Harrison, D. Beddows, C. O’Dowd, H. Flentje, K.Weinhold, F. Meinhardt, L. Ries, and M. Kulmala. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 5505-5538 (2011).
Boundary Layer Dynamics Over London, UK, as Observed Using Doppler Lidar during REPARTEE-II, J.F. Barlow, T.M. Dunbar, E.G. Nemitz, C.R. Wood, M.W. Gallagher, F. Davies, E. O’Connor and R.M. Harrison, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 2111-2125 (2011).
Relationship of Personal Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds to Home, Work and Fixed Site Outdoor Concentrations, J.M. Delgado-Saborit, N.J. Aquilina, C. Meddings, S. Baker and R.M. Harrison, Science of the Total Environment, 409, 478-488 (2011).
Books edited or authored
PM2.5 in the UK, Final Report, D. Laxen, P. Boulter, R. Harrison and M. Heal, Project ER12, Scotland & Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research (SNIFFER), 171 pp (2010).
Sustainable Water, Issues in Environmental Science and Technology, 31, R.E. Hester and R.M. Harrison (eds), Royal Society of Chemistry, 169pp (2010). ISBN 978-1-84973-019-8 , Issues in Environmental Science and Technology, 31, R.E. Hester and (eds), Royal Society of Chemistry, 169pp (2010). ISBN 978-1-84973-019-8
Environmental Medicine, J.G. Ayres, R.M. Harrison, G.L. Nichols and R.L. Maynard (eds), Hodder Education, 700pp (2010). ISBN-13 978-0-340-94656-5 , J.G. Ayres, , G.L. Nichols and R.L. Maynard (eds), Hodder Education, 700pp (2010). ISBN-13 978-0-340-94656-5