Research Indoor Air Quality

Joseph Allen, DSC, MPH, CIH

Director of the Healthy Buildings Program

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Dr. Joseph G. Allen is an associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Program, and co-author of Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Can Make You Sick—or Keep You Well. Dr. Allen serves on Harvard’s Presidential Committee on Sustainability, he keynoted the White House’s first-ever Indoor Air Quality Summit, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, served as Commissioner of The Lancet COVID-19 Commission and Chair of its Safe Work, Safe Schools, and Safe Travel Task Force. In 2023, Allen was featured on the 60 Minutes episode, The Air We Breathe, spotlighting the value of healthy indoor air quality for virus mitigation. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers and regularly contributes to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Harvard Business Review.

Keith Acosta

Master's Student with the Healthy Buildings Programs

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Keith is a Master of Science candidate in Environmental Health: Occupational Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research interests broadly include sustainability, occupational health & safety and pediatric environmental health. His current research role focuses on childhood lead poisoning prevention and geospatial analysis at the New England Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU), based at Boston Children’s Hospital. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he previously served as a frontline healthcare worker at a dermatology clinic in Western Massachusetts. He solidified his commitment to the field of public health after completing internships at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Keith completed his BS in Global & Public Health Sciences and Demography at Cornell University.

Parham Azimi, PHD

Research Associate with the Healthy Buildings Program

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Parham Azimi’s research focuses on the fate, transport, and control of indoor aerosols of indoor and ambient origin, the chronic health impacts of fine and ultrafine particles, and the transmission of infectious diseases. Currently, he is evaluating the transmission risk of infectious respiratory diseases, including influenza, measles, and Covid-19, in various indoor environments such as cruise ships, schools, and healthcare facilities using a newly-developed mechanistic model. In addition, he is working on the impacts of flood and building characteristics on mold growth and occupational respiratory health in residential buildings. Parham joined the Healthy Buildings Program in 2019 after two years of working as a research associate in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he also received his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering in 2016. He earned his M.Sc. degree in Environmental Engineering in 2012 and a B.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering in 2010, both from the Department of Civil Engineering at Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.

Lauren Ferguson, PHD

Postdoctoral Fellow with the Healthy Buildings Program

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Lauren Ferguson is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Healthy Buildings Program. Lauren holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from University College London (UCL), UK, where she built a personal exposure model which estimated childhood exposure to PM_2.5 for 1.3 million individuals in Greater London. The tool can be used to assess a number of “soft” (for example, behavioral modifications) and “hard” (for example, building interventions) policy interventions on childhood exposure to air pollution. Lauren’s interests lie in using building physics and statistical models to assess population-level exposures to indoor environmental hazards, such as heat and air pollution, and understanding how these exposures lead to health impacts and inequalities. In addition to her doctoral research, she has applied these techniques to study population exposure to household air pollution in Nairobi’s informal settlements and predict the extent of indoor overheating the UK housing stock may face under future climate scenarios. The goal of her work with the Healthy Buildings Program is to continue her research into indoor heat, where she will be building a US-based housing stock model.

Analise Hober

Master's Student with the Healthy Buildings Programs

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Analise is a NIOSH ERC Trainee and Master of Science candidate in Environmental Health: Occupational Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her interests broadly include building science and worker safety in high-risk work environments. Before entering the graduate program, Analise worked in the San Francisco Bay Area as an associate industrial hygienist for a small consulting firm. Her continuing education in that role included OSHA HAZWOPER 40, EPA/AHERA Building Inspector and Contractor Supervisor, CDPH Lead Inspector/Risk Assessor, and courses in infrared thermography and mold investigation. Her daily work included a variety of building science surveys, sampling, and site monitoring at demolition and renovation projects. Analise earned a BA in Environmental Earth Science at UC Berkeley.

Zahra Keshavarz, MSC

Research Assistant with the Healthy Buildings Program

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Zahra Keshavarz’s research focuses on the assessment of hazardous emissions such as aldehydes and methylglyoxal from electronic cigarettes, evaluating the effectiveness of infection control strategies in indoor environments using low-cost sensors, and mold growth assessment in submerged residential buildings after hurricanes and other catastrophic events. Currently, she is monitoring the indoor air quality (IAQ) and effectiveness of ventilation and filtration systems in several healthcare facilities in Boston, MA and assessing mold growth in residential buildings in New Orleans, LA and Orlando, FL after Hurricane Ida and Ian. Zahra holds a B.Sc. in civil engineering and an M.Sc. in structural engineering. Her graduate research work was focused on applications of artificial intelligence techniques in predicting building characteristics. She also has a background in indoor environmental engineering. Before joining the for-Health team, Zahra worked as an indoor air consultant at Indoor Science in Chicago, IL.

Seongjun Park, PHD

Postdoctoral Fellow with the Healthy Buildings Program

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Seongjun Park is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Healthy Buildings Program. His research focuses on building science, indoor air quality, low-cost particle sensors, residential ventilation systems, indoor chemistry, and the control of infectious diseases. During his PhD, he worked on controlling airborne diseases using germicidal UV (GUV) systems and studied the formation of secondary contaminants associated with GUV disinfection using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Before his PhD program, Seongjun worked as a building engineer at one of Korea’s leading sustainable building consulting firms, participating in over 100 projects. His responsibilities included stack effect analysis, indoor thermal comfort simulation, and testing, adjusting, and balancing (TAB). Seongjun holds a Ph.D. in Architectural Engineering at Pennsylvania State University, an M.Sc. in Architecture and Architectural Engineering at Seoul National University, and a B.Sc. in Architectural Engineering at Yonsei University.

Gen Pei, PhD

Research Associate with the Healthy Buildings Program

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Gen Pei’s research focuses on building science, indoor air quality, infectious disease transmission, building materials, and energy-efficient and resilient buildings. Currently, he is working on developing effective interventions to mitigate infectious diseases transmission in buildings, and quantifying the health and climate benefits of energy-saving measures in buildings. His doctoral research established a measurement and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling framework to understand pollutant transport, fate, chemical reaction, and control in indoor environments. The goal of his research is to advance our knowledge of developing healthy, smart, sustainable, and resilient buildings. Gen holds a Ph.D. and an M.Sc. in Architectural Engineering at Pennsylvania State University, and a B.Sc. in Building Environment and Energy Engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong University.

Jose Vallarino

Project Engineer with the Healthy Buildings Program

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Jose Vallarino is a project engineer in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He has over 25 years’ experience managing exposure studies focused on indoor and ambient environmental air quality. He has collaborated in research projects in the US, Africa, Asia and Europe. He, provides oversight of sampling protocols, designs monitoring platforms, and serves as the QA officer for several HSPH research center grants. He also provides guidance on research administration in areas of Human Subjects, Data Use Agreements and Data Security.