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Kirk R. Smith
In Memoriam

Kirk R. Smith

Professor of Public Health

UC Berkeley
1947-2020
Kirk R. Smith, professor of public health, member of the National Academy of Sciences, winner of the Heinz and Tyler Prizes, and Nobelist, died at age 73 in Berkeley on June 15, 2020. Kirk Smith embodied the ideal “Berkeley Professor.” His scholarship not only furthered science, but also reduced pain among millions of the earth’s least advantaged inhabitants. His teaching attracted, engaged, and challenged undergraduate, professional, and doctoral students. He regularly traversed the campus, and travelled the globe, in response to requests for his knowledge and wisdom. He encouraged, entertained, and enjoyed his friends. He loved, supported, and celebrated his family.

Kirk was born in Berkeley (on January 19, 1947), educated from grade school through his doctorate at Berkeley (B.A. '68, M.P.H. '72, and Ph.D. '77), was a member of the Berkeley Academic Senate, and was a resident of the City of Berkeley for 30 years; however, he was truly a citizen of the world. His landmark research into the health effects of energy use in low- and middle-income countries led him to spend considerable time in far-flung and remote locations. He advised governments as well as non-governmental organizations in Asia and Central America. He became expert on diverse cultures while respecting and enjoying each of them. Colleagues the world over knew him not only as a hard-working scholar but also as a caring friend. Indeed, his global influence led him to membership on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Nobel committee awarded Smith and the IPCC the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for contributions to “an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming.”

Kirk Smith began his scholarly career evaluating the health impacts of nuclear energy. But, while traveling in Asia in the 1970s, he observed that domestic cooking with biomass fuels likely posed a substantial threat to public health. He began a novel line of scholarship when, in 1981, he measured exposures to indoor air pollution in Gujarat, India, where cooking with biomass-fueled, inefficient, and poorly ventilated stoves filled homes with smoke. Smith found very high concentrations of particulate pollution that adversely affected the health of women, who were doing the cooking, and their children. He spent the ensuing four decades extending that research and using its findings to reduce the global burden of disease.

Smith’s many scholarly achievements include designing and leading the first, and best-known, randomized controlled trial of an intervention to reduce the health effects of indoor air pollution. Conducted in rural Mayan villages in the western highlands of Guatemala during the 1990s, the “Randomized Exposure Study of Pollution Indoors and Respiratory Effects” found that a chimney stove intervention reduced the risk of respiratory disease in infants.

Smith’s research led him to believe that all children, regardless of wealth, deserved the benefits of clean air in their homes. He spent the last decade of his life advocating for the conversion of cooking in low- and middle-income countries from biomass fired stoves, no matter how efficient, to devices burning liquified petroleum gas (LPG). His long history of work and collaboration with Indian scientists and policy makers led, for instance, to one of the world’s most ambitious clean fuel programs, which has now provided nearly 80 million households with access to LPG. This remarkable project typified Smith’s scholarship – the work not only advanced basic knowledge, but also improved the health of the 40% of the world’s population that cooks with solid fuels.

While Kirk Smith will be remembered for his leadership in the field of household air pollution, he was also a leader in other important areas of environmental health. Empowered by his scholarship, Smith played a major role in revising the Global Burden of Disease risk assessments to include air pollution as an important environmental risk factor for disability and death. He also recognized early that climate change would have huge impacts on public health, especially in low-income countries that contribute least to the accumulation of greenhouse gases and remain least able to adapt to global warming. Because of Kirk Smith’s leadership in research on the health effects of air pollution and climate change, he was awarded every prestigious prize in the field of environmental health, including the aforementioned Heinz and Tyler prizes.

A deeply committed and beloved mentor, Kirk Smith inspired scores of students and junior scientists to pursue work at the intersection of climate change, air pollution, and environmental health. His former students now lead environmental institutions and initiatives around the world, and they carry forward his commitment to the underprivileged. He worked tirelessly to advocate for students, helped them launch their own work from his platform, and taught them how to lead with generosity. Smith’s mentees will be guided in the coming years and decades by the memory of his commitment to science, the power of his vision for a more just world, and the model he offered for living a full and loving life.

Those of us with whom Kirk Smith taught, wrote, and otherwise served at Berkeley of course admired his scholarship, particularly bringing the rigor of true experimentation to understanding the health effects of indoor air pollution. We further valued his considerable commitment to the school, campus, and university. But we also came to treasure him for his humor, wisdom, and decency. And now, in remembering him, we share amazement at his success in describing, explaining, and reducing the burden of illness on the world’s poor.

Kirk Smith will be remembered by those who knew him closely as a dear friend as well as a successful and admired professional. Those of us fortunate enough to influence the careers of future scientists and scholars will cite Kirk Smith’s career as evidence that predecessors have met the high standards set for us as Berkeley professors.

Smith is survived by his wife of 42 years, Joan Diamond, daughter Nadia Diamond-Smith and her husband, Vanja Torbica, and two grandchildren, Miro and Zoja.

Ralph Catalano
John Balmes
Justin Remais
2020