Room 008, Amrut Mody School of Management
Central Campus
Air pollution has been identified as the leading environmental health risk globally. In India, air pollution has been identified as the second largest health risk after maternal and child malnutrition. Health risks attributable to air pollution require robust exposure estimates, sociodemographic conditions and background disease rates. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study has provided a robust framework to estimate the health burden of air pollution. However, the current estimates, available at state levels, have two critical assumptions. First, the risk is considered to be uniform across the composition, neglecting the issue of particle toxicity. Second, the exposure-response functions are derived from cohorts primarily conducted in developed countries. The lack of robust exposure data hindered the generation of India-specific exposure-response functions for non-communicable diseases. In this talk, I will demonstrate the recent advancements in exposure modelling and how such data is used for health studies, addressing these two aspects. I will also highlight the complex pathways between air pollution and climate and how the air pollution attributable burden is expected to change in future. My talk will demonstrate the urgent need for a collaborative and systematic approach to understand and minimise environmental health risks in India.
Professor Sagnik Dey is a Professor at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, IIT Delhi, and Adjunct Professor at Korea University, Seoul. He coordinates the Centre of Excellence for Research on Clean Air (CERCA) and is affiliated with IIT Delhi’s School of Public Policy and TRIPC. He served as Institute Chair Professor (2019-2024).
He holds an MSc from Jadavpur University and an MTech & PhD from IIT Kanpur. After a postdoc at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he joined IIT Delhi. His research focuses on air quality, climate change, health, and remote sensing, with 150+ peer-reviewed publications (h-index: 49).
Professor Dey has received several awards, including the INSA Young Scientist Medal (2008), NASI-SCOPUS Young Scientist Award (2012), IIT Delhi Teaching Excellence Award (2016), Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship (2017-18), and the AGU Devendra Lal Memorial Medal (2024).
He collaborates internationally, including with NASA’s MAIA mission and the Global Burden of Disease Study. He has advised WHO, the World Bank, UNEP, and UNDP. He serves on editorial boards of journals such as GeoHealth, Atmospheric Environment, and Scientific Reports.
Professor Dey is a scientific advisory committee member for ICMR-NIREH, NIOH, and TERI SAS, and a board member at Central University Jharkhand. He also advises India’s air pollution and heat-related illness programmes.
