Dr Rajesh Balkrishnan, Professor of Public Health Sciences, recently visited Nepal to jumpstart research related to reducing the effects of air pollution on environmental health in Nepal. He was accompanied by Ankit Dakhal, PhD student at UVA Chemical Engineering.

This collaborative research begun at UVA through support from the Environmental Resilience Institute brings together researchers from UVA Engineering (Dr. Gaurav Giri) , Public Policy (Dr. Bala Mulloth) and Medicine to address issues of air pollution in low to middle income countries and their impact on population health. Recently this team has received NIH funding to develop the air filtration technology into useable fabric materials and incorporate in daily life to reduce the impact of air pollution and air borne pathogens. During this visit, there were meetings and talks with researchers working at Kathmandu University School of Medicine as well as Resource Himalaya Foundation - a nongovernmental multi-institutional organization focused on environmental protection in Nepal.