Air pollution is a needless insult to our environment that has severe consequences for human and plant health and general environmental quality.  In this seminar Professor Douw Steyn (Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Science at The University of British Columbia) will survey the nature, causes and consequences of degraded air quality in order to illuminate the phenomenon, and to illustrate of its global and local nature.  He will provide a perspective that contrasts North-South differences, and will sketch the general principles whereby air pollution can be improved, regardless of the society in which it occurs.
 
Douw Steyn, PhD, ACM, FCMOS is a Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Science at The University of British Columbia, in the Department of Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, is member of the Institute for Applied Mathematics, the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, and the Liu Institute for Global Issues. He has served as Associate Dean (Research and Faculty Development) in the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Principal of the College for Interdisciplinary Studies. His professional, teaching and research activities are in the field of air pollution meteorology, boundary layer meteorology, mesoscale meteorology, environmental science and interdisciplinary science. His research involves measurement and modelling studies of regional air pollution, especially in regions with complex terrain. This work involves modelling of near-surface emissions of pollutants and their precursors, atmospheric flow and turbulence modelling, and modelling of chemical transformation of air pollutants. He has worked extensively on the statistics of air pollution, air pollution monitoring and monitoring network design. He is winner of a UBC Killam Teaching Prize, the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Andrew Thompson Prize in Applied Meteorology, and the Canadian Federation for Earth Sciences
Mentorship Medal.

He has served as Chair of the scientific committee that leads the International Technical Meeting series on Air Pollution Modelling and its Application. He publishes regularly in the international peer reviewed literature, he is managing editor of the journal Atmosphere-Ocean. He is an Accredited Consulting Meteorologist, and has international consultancy experience in his areas of expertise, and has provided expert testimony in numerous court cases and appeal board hearings in British Columbia.