On April 8th, Prof. CAO Junji from the Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, won a 2019 Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award, also known as the ‘Nobel Prize’ of air pollution and climate science achievements. The award is annually issued by California Air Resources Board to recognize outstanding achievements in air quality and climate research; technology advancements; environmental justice, policy and education. Cao is the second scientists won the award in Chinese mainland after Academician HAO Jiming, from Tsinghua University.

Prof. CAO has more than 20 years of experience in leading aerosol and air quality studies in China. His most important achievements in aerosol science have focused on the excessive quantities of suspended particulate matter (PM) in major Chinese cities. He has promoted information transfer from the fields of aerosol science and technology to governmental agencies and groups tasked with improving air quality in China. His work has spanned a wide range of topics related to air pollution, from characterizing emission sources and elucidating pollution transport and transformation, to measuring ambient concentrations and exposures, evaluating the effectiveness of emission reduction measures, and establishing linkages between science and control policies.

Prof. CAO is the principal author or co-author of ~550 papers cited in the Science Citation Index (SCI) (four papers in Nature and Science) with ～22,000 SCI citations and an H-index of 68 (data from Web of Science). He has more than 31,000 Google scholar citations and an H-index of 84. He was the President of the Asian Aerosol Research Assembly from 2011-2014 and currently serves as the General-secretary of International Aerosol Research Assembly. He was elected as Fellow of the International Aerosol Research Assembly in 2016. He has been listed as a Highly Cited Researcher 2018/2019 in the world by Clarivate Analytics.

The Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award is named for CARB’s first chairman, the late Dr. Arie Haagen-Smit, who is best known as the “father of air pollution control” for linking smog in Southern California to automobile emissions. The award recognizes individuals who embody Dr. Haagen-Smit’s legacy through their work in research, environmental policy, science and technology, public education, climate change science, international leadership, community service, and environmental justice. There were 7 winners this year (https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CARB/bulletins/2859bfd).