When the World Health Organization announced – incorrectly, as became apparent later – in March 2020 that the Covid-19 virus was not airborne, Prof Lidia Morawska knew she had to do something.
A renowned expert in air quality and health, Morawska, of the Queensland University of Technology, began contacting international colleagues. She eventually gathered 239 scientists globally to highlight the risk of airborne transmission of Sars-CoV-2.
The public pressure eventually prompted the WHO and other authorities to update their public health guidelines.
For her work during the pandemic, Morawska was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in 2021.
On Monday evening, she also received the top gong at the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science, for her “pioneering research about the air we breathe”.
Morawska described receiving the $250,000 prime minister’s prize as “an amazing joy”, but said importantly the award would bring attention to her field of research.
Her current work focuses on ultrafine particles – tiny pollutants tens to hundreds of times smaller than PM2.5 and believed to have more significant health impacts, but which are not yet widely regulated.
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