SACRAMENTO – Three winners of the 2018 Haagen-Smit Clean Air Awards will each give a brief presentation to the general public on their work. The 20-minute presentations will feature cutting-edge solutions and research on subjects ranging from air pollution in Southern California and the Central Valley to zero-carbon solutions for the climate change problem.

WHEN: 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 20, 2019
WHERE: CalEPA Headquarters, Coastal Hearing Room, 1001 I Street (10th & I), Sacramento, CA
WHO: Hal Harvey, Barry Wallerstein, and John Watson

Background on Clean Air Leadership Talks

The Clean Air Leadership Talks feature a 20-minute talk from each of the 2018 Haagen-Smit Award recipients.

Five Decades of Air Quality Studies in Central California
John Watson, Ph.D., Research Professor at Desert Research Institute.

How have nearly 50 years of experiments and air pollution monitoring in California’s San Francisco Bay Area, Central Valley, and Mojave Desert helped us? Learn how research and field studies have produced cost-effective emission reduction strategies and improved air quality.

Clean Air - Healthy World: Building Tomorrow's Achievement On Our Successes Of The Last 50 Years
Barry Wallerstein, D.Env., Senior Policy Fellow, School of Public Policy, UC Riverside.

California's clean air history provides valuable insight into future policy needs, and a road map for achieving clean air in all communities and a healthy future for the world. Further integration of the time-honored air pollution control program with the global climate change program is critical to save our environment and protect everyone's right to breathe clean air. We can address local air pollution issues and global climate change in the same policy discussion.

Getting to Zero: A Strategy to Drive Emissions Down Rapidly and Effectively
Hal Harvey, CEO of Energy Innovation.

Carbon math shows us, unambiguously, that we need to undertake the largest, fastest carbon abatement policies, and do so promptly. “All of the above” energy policy fails at this imperative. Instead, we need to understand, and pursue with vigor, policies that do the most to transform our grid to zero-carbon; make our vehicles zero-emission; drive buildings to zero-net-energy; and switch to zero-waste manufacturing. This strategy will be enunciated, along with the policy path to get there.

2018 recipients not presenting:

Paul Crutzen, Ph.D., Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Chemistry

Anne Douglass, Ph.D., National Aeronautics Space Administration

Haagen-Smit Clean Air Awards Ceremony

Three of the five honorees will be present to receive their award Thursday, February 21, 2019, during the regular meeting of the California Air Resources Board, Byron Sher Auditorium, 1001 I Street, Sacramento, Calif. 95814. Approximate time: 9:00 AM.

VISUALS: The awards ceremony will be webcast.

Photos and video will be available after the award ceremony.

About the Haagen-Smit Clean Air Awards: The prestigious Haagen-Smit awards are given annually to those who have made outstanding contributions in the fields of clean air, climate change, technology and related policies. Considered to be California's premier air quality award, it is named for CARB’s first chairman, the late Dr. Arie Haagen-Smit – best known for linking the smog in Southern California to automobiles. The award recognizes those who have followed in his footsteps in pursuit of clean air. The Haagen-Smit Clean Air Awards have been presented since 2001. Winners have ranged from research scientists to educators to public agency administrators.

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