51st Lester Breslow Distinguished Lecture | Dr. Yifang Zhu: "From Invisible to Visible: How air pollution research informs action in a changing climate"
Join the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health for the 51st Lester Breslow Distinguished Lecture on Tuesday, February 24 from 12pm – 1pm PT, via Zoom. The event will be hosted by the dean of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Dr. Ron Brookmeyer and feature Dr. Yifang Zhu delivering her lecture, "From Invisible to Visible: How air pollution research informs action in a changing climate."
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ABOUT DR. YIFANG ZHU
Dr. Yifang Zhu is a professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She graduated from Tsinghua University in 1997 and received her PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health in 2003. Her research interest is primarily in the field of air pollution, climate change, environmental exposure assessment, and aerosol science and technology. Her current research focuses on measuring and modeling air pollutant emissions, transport, and transformation as well assessing and mitigating the associated health effects. Her scholarship and creativity has been recognized by several national awards, including the Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award from the Health Effects Institute in 2007, the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation in 2009, and the Haagen-Smit Prize from Atmosphere Environment in 2011.
ABOUT DR. LESTER BRESLOW
Dr. Lester Breslow -- former dean of the UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, professor emeritus of health services, and a leading figure in public health for seven decades -- was a visionary with a well-established track record for being ahead of his time. As early as the 1940s, he linked tobacco use to disease in three studies that were later cited in the U.S. Surgeon General’s landmark 1964 report.
Breslow is widely known for his early advocacy and research into health promotion and disease prevention. Breslow’s pioneering Alameda County studies beginning in the early 1960s were among the first to show that simple health practices — such as getting regular exercise and sleep, not drinking excessively, not smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight — add both years and quality to life.
While these conclusions are taken for granted today, the idea of such a strong connection between lifestyle and health was seen as "bizarre" at the time, Breslow noted decades later. He would smile when recalling the response of the National Institutes of Health panel of scientists that reviewed the initial study proposal: "Unanimous rejection." When the study was completed, even Breslow was shocked at the magnitude of the results, which helped usher in current thinking about health and fitness.
READ MORE about the Lester Breslow Distinguished Lecture series.