Rate My Professor Roy Harrison

Professor Roy Harrison OBE FRS serves as Queen Elizabeth II Birmingham Centenary Professor of Environmental Health in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, a position he has held since 1991. He also holds the role of Distinguished Adjunct Professor at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. His academic qualifications include a B.Sc. in Chemistry with Class I Honours from the University of Birmingham in 1969, a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the same institution in 1972, and a D.Sc. in Environmental Chemistry in 1989. Professor Harrison's research specializations centre on air pollution, with a particular emphasis on airborne particulate matter, including its emissions, atmospheric chemical and physical transformations, human exposure, and health impacts. His interests extend to atmospheric science, environmental chemistry, aerosol science, and the links between environment and human health. He leads the module on Causes & Effects of Air Pollution and has successfully supervised at least 30 doctoral researchers in these fields.

Throughout his career, Professor Harrison has been deeply involved at the science-policy interface, serving as a member of several UK government technical advisory groups for the Department of Health and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, including past membership of Defra’s Science Advisory Council. He contributed to the World Health Organization’s Global Air Quality Guidelines and Guidelines for Quality of Indoor Air. With over 660 publications in peer-reviewed literature, he is listed by Web of Science as a Highly Cited Researcher. Notable recent works include 'A Critical Comparison of Exposure Estimators for Airborne Particulate Matter in Urban Cyclists' (2026, Toxics), 'Analysis of the abundance and impacts of volatile organic compounds across Europe' (2026, npj Climate and Atmospheric Science), and 'Dominant contribution of fossil fuel combustion to carbonaceous aerosol pollution in Delhi' (2026, Journal of Hazardous Materials). His major honours include appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2004 and election as Fellow of the Royal Society in 2017. Professor Harrison is Editor-in-Chief of npj Climate and Atmospheric Science since 2016 and Associate Editor of Earth Systems & Environment. His work has significantly influenced air quality policy and environmental health research.