Northern Air Quality Conference 2024: The speaker line-up in full

We are delighted to announce that we can now confirm the full line-up of speakers at our Northern Air Quality Conference, in Manchester on 19th March.

As ever, we have looked to invite speakers who cover a broad spectrum of the air quality field. We have academics, campaigners, local authority representatives and experts in air quality monitoring.

This year the conference will be held at Manchester’s stunning Bridgewater Hall

The latest – and final- speakers to come on board are Alice Handy and Dr. Rhys Archer who will be discussing the SAMHE project. SAMHE stands for Schools’ Air quality Monitoring for Health and Education and the project is bringing together scientists, pupils and teachers to establish a network of air quality monitors in schools across the UK.

Alice is Research Associate at Imperial College London. She is analysing the data collected from SAMHE’s network of monitors and helping to coordinate the SAMHE Champions Initiative. Alice conducted her MEng and PhD at the University of Cambridge. Her PhD research focussed on the dispersion of pollutants indoors and use of air cleaners to improve indoor air quality.

In addition to her involvement with SAMHE, Rhys works on the Youth LIVES project – which co-produces mental health research with young people – and leads a campaign called Women of Science, which she founded in 2016.

In 2004, Andrew Whittles designed the first Low Emission Zone in the UK, on the Greenwich Peninsula in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. He also designed the Low Emission controls for the London 2012 Olympic Park and strategies for Bradford, Slough, West Midlands. West Yorkshire, Liverpool City Region, Southampton and Northampton local authorities.

Andrew is currently the Director of Air Quality Programmes at Bradford Council where his role includes developing and implementing a Clean Air Plan, CAZ and wider projects including HyBradford, Climate Change and Sustainability Programmes

Roy M Harrison OBE, FRS is an expert on air pollution, specialising in the area of airborne particulate matter, including nanoparticles. His most significant work has been in the field of vehicle emitted particles, including their chemical composition and atmospheric processing. This forms the basis of the current understanding of the relationship of emissions to roadside concentrations and size distributions.

He is a past member of Defra’s Science Advisory Council, and a current member of their Air Quality Expert Group and the DHSC Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants. He was a contributor to the WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines (2005) and the Guidelines for Quality of Indoor Air (2010). He was awarded an OBE in 2004 and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2017.

Tom Bannan is an atmospheric scientist and a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. Tom’s research at the Centre for Atmospheric Science focuses on instrumentation for the measurement of components pertinent to air quality, leading mass spectrometry developments and deployment on the British Research Aircraft as well as use of network sensors to understand changes in air quality and transport at local and regional levels. Recently Tom has looked at how a wide range of atmospheric measurement techniques can be used to understand the UK indoor environment and its effect on our health.

Sarah Rowe is the Greater Manchester campaigner for Clean Cities, a European network delivering campaigns and research to urge cities to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030, and prioritise active, shared and electric mobility.  Sarah has over 10 years experience in engaging people in issues of social justice and is now working alongside local partners in Greater Manchester to campaign for positive solutions to toxic air. 

There will also be a joint presentation between Pablo Garcia, Senior Air Quality Modeller at EarthSense and Amber Titchener, the Air Quality Officer at Southampton City Council, discussing their work together

Pablo’s research focuses on high-resolution air quality modelling in urban areas, contributing to evidence-based policy design, exposure assessment, and air quality forecasting. 

Amber manages the Clean Air for Schools initiative, focused on increasing children’s awareness of air quality while minimising their exposure to pollution. As well as the new Healthcare Air Quality Engagement project, partnered with Global Action Plan and the Environment Centre to train healthcare professionals to be able to educate vulnerable patients on air pollution information and how to minimise the impacts of pollution. 

As ever, there will also be a panel discussion at the event, details of which will be released shortly.

Super Early Bird tickets for the conference are still available.