Kirk R Smith

Abstract

Pioneering scientist focused on health, climate, and environmental impacts of air pollution. Born in Berkeley, CA, USA, on Jan 19, 1947, he died at his home in Berkeley of a cardiac arrest following a stroke on June 15, 2020, aged 73 years. Kirk Smith's legacy in public health and environmental science is immense. The impact of his research is summarised by John Balmes, Professor of Medicine at the University of California (UC) San Francisco and Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at UC Berkeley, USA, who worked closely with Smith: “Kirk probably saved more lives than anybody I've ever worked with. He was truly a public health hero.” Smith brought the health risks of household air pollution to the world's attention. He pioneered new methods for measuring exposure to air pollution, assessing the health effects, evaluating potential solutions, and quantitating approaches to comparing environmental health risks across large populations. His research was instrumental in launching international initiatives on household energy, climate, health, and equity, including the Clean Cooking Alliance and UNEP's Climate and Clean Air Coalition. Among hundreds of research publications, Smith contributed to the IPCC's Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports, the comparative risk assessment of the 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study, and the 2017 Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. “Kirk's contributions to clean cooking initiatives around multiple countries have no parallel”, said Kalpana Balakrishnan, Professor of Environmental Health Engineering and Director of the Centre for Advanced Research on Air Quality, Climate and Health at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research in Chennai and a collaborator of Smith's. “Kirk almost single-handedly created the field of household energy and its influence on health”, said Tami Bond, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the Scott Presidential Chair in Energy, Environment and Health at Colorado State University. “He envisioned what scientific evidence was needed before anyone else did, and went about developing it…He made the first measurements of exposures and emissions laying the groundwork for thousands of future studies.” Smith “thought systematically about complex problems”, said John Holdren, the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and Co-Director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. “He was a very deep and unconventional thinker, and connected dots that other people hadn't connected.” “Follow the risk” was one of Smith's mantras. It helps explain his shift in focus from the health and environmental risks of nuclear energy and coal—the subject of his PhD in the mid-1970s at UC Berkeley—to the understudied problems of indoor air quality and household energy poverty. “I think it was actually a natural evolution of his thinking about risk”, said Holdren, who was one of Smith's doctoral advisers. “He was always looking for the places where the most vulnerable people were experiencing the highest risk.” Balmes adds that “Kirk was passionate about making a difference in the lives of women and children in particular, in rural areas of developing countries.” After his PhD, he founded the Energy Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu. In 1995, he returned to UC Berkeley to become Professor of Global Environmental Health in the School of Public Health. He would become as beloved by his students as he was by the many colleagues he worked with across Asia and Latin America. A defining attribute was his generosity as a mentor, said Ajay Pillarisetti, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University who studied with Smith for his doctoral and postdoctoral work. Another was his ability to convene interdisciplinary, global teams. “He had the skill and talent to identify the right folks along the way, whether in exposure science or epidemiology, to build out the right team to try to solve these complex problems”, said Pillarisetti. And he was adept at framing and communicating those problems. His efforts contributed to a 2016 policy breakthrough when the Government of India made subsidised LPG cooking fuel and stoves available to millions of poor households. “His role in transforming the discourse on LPG to replace biomass cooking fuels in India was pathbreaking”, said Balakrishnan. Smith spent time over the past 5 years in India working on research and policy initiatives and was the founding Director of the Collaborative Clean Air Policy Centre in New Delhi. Smith inspired legions of researchers and policy advocates to work on intersecting problems of air pollution, climate change, and health. “I think that's a huge part of his legacy”, said Balmes. “The most important thing is to carry on his work. I think we will.” Smith is survived by his wife, Joan Diamond, his daughter, Nadia Diamond-Smith, and two grandchildren.