Tuesday, January 21, 2025
12:10pm-1:30pm
Speaker: Jeffrey Siegel, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, University of Toronto
Location: GB220 (Galbraith Building, 35 St George St, room 220)
Title: Exposing the Brain: Impact of Indoor Air Quality on Neurocognitive Function
Abstract:
Poor indoor air is Canadians’ largest environmental risk, yet known chronic health consequences accumulate over a lifetime of exposure in different buildings, limiting public interest, investment, and regulatory action. Even the pandemic did not meaningfully address poor indoor air. However, exposures to indoor contaminants also negatively influence neurocognitive function and high-level decision making. These influences, although currently poorly understood, offer a sustained model for indoor air improvement with the costs for such improvements covered by the economic benefits from neurocognitive function improvements in environments such as schools and office buildings. This presentation discusses the current state of research on cognitive function impacts including research on carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and emissions from essential oil diffusers with a particular focus on understanding the fundamental connections between indoor exposures and neurocognitive processes.
Biography:
Jeffrey Siegel, Ph.D., is a Professor of Civil and Mineral Engineering and a member of the Hub for Advancing Buildings at the University of Toronto and a Bahen/Tanenbaum Chair in Civil Engineering. He holds joint appointments at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences. He has an M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley as well as a B.Sc. from Swarthmore College. He is internationally recognized for his work on indoor air quality generally and air cleaning specifically and is a fellow of ASHRAE and a member of the Academy of Fellows of the International Society for Indoor Air and Climate (ISIAQ). His research interests include healthy and sustainable buildings, filtration and air cleaning, ventilation and indoor air quality in residential and commercial buildings, control of indoor particulate matter, cognitive impacts of indoor air quality, and the impact of building systems on indoor microbiology and chemistry. Prior to his position at the University of Toronto, Dr. Siegel was an Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Austin.
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