University of Massachusetts Amherst: Peltier Honored as 2023 Science Defender by Union of Concerned Scientists

Richard Peltier, professor of environmental health sciences in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, has been named a 2023 Science Defender by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). He is one of four individuals and groups recognized this year for their outstanding work to defend science, or who have put science to work to help people and change the world for the better.

Peltier received the honor for his work “helping communities breathe easier.” In a feature story on the UCS website announcing this year’s winners, the organization notes highlights how Peltier and his team work with people living with unsafe air quality to improve public health and share their findings and recommendations with the communities they study. He is cited for his work collecting and interpreting data on air quality around the world, especially in the Global South, where he makes a difference by identifying sources of air pollution and suggesting relatively easy ways to reduce people’s exposure.

Peltier’s team works in countries such as Nepal and Bolivia, “where there are air pollution problems that are not being seen, observed, or interrogated,” he says. “We choose to spend intellectual capital on those populations because they have lungs just like everybody else.”

Closer to home, he has worked with grassroots environmental justice organizations in Kansas, Texas and Tennessee to help them make the scientific case for limiting emissions of ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic gas released by certain industrial facilities.

Peltier says that it is important to listen to communities and modify his research to meet their needs – “Listen first and talk last; make sure your ears are bigger than your mouth,” he advises.

The UCS is a national nonprofit organization comprised of nearly 250 scientists, analysts, policy experts, organizers, and communicators founded more than 50 years ago by scientists and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose mission is to put rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe and just future.