Audrey Smargiassi

Professor University of Montreal

School of Public Health

Audrey.smargiassi@umontreal.ca mail_outline
514 343 6111

Website

Interests and Expertise

Environmental health, population exposure assessment, environmental epidemiology, air pollution, environmental noise, vegetation, climate change, comparative risk assessment;

Biography

Audrey obtained a PhD in Environmental Sciences from the Université du Québec à Montréal and conducted postdoctoral studies in occupational health at the University of Parma (Italy). She is a full professor in the Département de santé environnementale et santé au travail at the École de Santé Publique of the Université de Montréal. She is an associate member of the Centre d’Étude de la Forêt and of the Centre de Recherche en Santé Publique de l’Université de Montréal and the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal. She is also an invited researcher at the Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec where she provides expertise on health risks related to exposure to air pollutants and environmental noise. She has a vast expertise on exposure to such environmental factors and their health effects. She directed the development of varying approaches to estimate exposures of large populations to noise and air pollutants. She conducted many environmental epidemiology studies to assess associations between these environmental exposures and various health effects. She also conducted a number of comparative health impact assessment studies, such as on transportation and land use scenarios, to orient interventions and policies. She trained over 50 graduate students, now working in environmental and public health sectors and in universities. She has been on the board of directors and is co-leader of the noise group of the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium CANUE. She is a member of an international expert committee mandated by the Health Effects Institute to write a monograph on the health risks of road-traffic pollutants that will be published in the coming months. Some of her current work pertains to the influence of the urban forest on environmental exposures and health (e.g. Sousa-Silva, Smargiassi et al 2021, Sci Rep; Zhao …Smargiassi 2021, Environ Res).

Current Urban-Forest Projects and Initiatives

1. Resilient Urban Forests for Canadians: Adapting to Climate Change for Enhanced Tree-Related Benefits; Conseil de Recherche en Sciences Naturelles et Génie du Canada (CRSNG); 600K$; 06/2019-05/2022; Principal Investigator principal (PI): Alain Paquette;
2. Training the future leaders in urban forestry; NSERC FONCER; 1 650K$; 09/2020-09/2026; PI : Christian Messier

Current students with projects pertaining to the urban forest

• Rita Sousa Silva (postdoctoral fellow), The urban forest and the well being of populations (in collaboration with Audrey Smargiassi and Yan Kestens)
• Julien Vachon (UFor trainee; PhD candidate): Ultrafine particles and their health effects: the influence of the urban forest (in collaboration with Audrey Smargiassi, Stéphane Buteau, and Daniel Kneeshaw)
• Louise Duquesne (MSc candidate): The influence of the urban forest on asthma onset in children (in collaboration with Audrey Smargiassi, Eric Lavigne, Kate Zinszer)

Teaching about Urban Forests

With my colleagues Rita Sousa Silva and Daniel Kneeshaw, I have taught on ecological services in a master’s course on climate change and health (MSN 6028).