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Welcome to the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Research on Climate, Health, and Energy (BIRCHE3) Lab.
Our research focuses on the impacts of energy use - typically at the household level - on air pollution, climate, and health. While progress on providing clean household energy arguably follows development trajectories, there is need to accelerate this transition through innovative policy and dissemination approaches. Our research group builds the evidence base for these transitions based on health, environmental, and economic benefits using the multidisciplinary field of Environmental Health Sciences as the foundation of our work. We use and develop lower-cost sensors to objectively answer questions where evidence is lacking and explore novel techniques to link vulnerable populations with effective interventions.

Recent Publications (see more)

Child Survival and Early Lifetime Exposures to Ambient Fine Particulate Matter in India: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Liao J, Liu Y, Steenland NK, Pillarisetti A, Thompson LM, Dey S, Balakrishnan K, Clasen T. (2022) Child Survival and Early Lifetime Exposures to Ambient Fine Particulate Matter in India: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Environmental Health Perspectives . https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP8910

Association between personal exposure to household air pollution and gestational blood pressure among women using solid cooking fuels in rural Tamil Nadu, India

Ye W, Thangavel G, Pillarisetti A, Steenland NK, Peel JL, Balakrishnan K, Jabbarzadeh S, Checkley W, Clasen T, HAPIN Investigators. (2022) “Association between personal exposure to household air pollution and gestational blood pressure among women using solid cooking fuels in rural Tamil Nadu, India.” Environmental Research 208 112756. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.112756

Blog

Vaclav Smil in the Times Magazine: “This is where we are in terms of global civilization: This transition has to happen on a billion and trillion scales.”

Some thoughts on Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility

Bill McKibben previsualizes a world without combustion

LRB: 26 Pieces for COP26

Jim Salter at Ars Technica: “Learn to think in sed, awk, and grep”

Data Science Community Newsletter: COVID on campus – Worse this year than last?

“And so on. Or else.”

“Face masks make it harder to hear, but amplification can help”

Clear communication: NYU’s Céline Gounder on the Ezra Klein Show

Sherry Turkle on time and the pandemic: “a liminal time, a time out of time”

You don't get what you expect, you get what you inspect.