Philip K. Hopke, Clarkson University's Bayard D. Clarkson Distinguished Professor, director of Clarkson's Institute for a Sustainable Environment and director of Clarkson's Center for Air Resources Engineering & Science (CARES), has been named a World Bank air quality consultant to the Ministry of the Environment in the People's Republic of Bangladesh.

Air pollution is a major cause for concern for Dhaka, the capital and one of the world's mega cities with a population of about 14 million in its metropolitan area, and other populous cities in Bangladesh.

Dhaka is set to become one of the world's most populated cities.

The concentration of particulate matter in the air has been increasing steadily in recent years, with an annual average much higher than World Health Organization guidelines.

Pollutant levels are rising because of emissions from brick kilns, gross polluting diesel run old vehicles, re-suspended road dusts and refuse burning.

The health burden of air pollution in Bangladesh is comparable to that due to lack of access to clean water and sanitation.

If the exposure to urban air pollution were reduced by 20 to 80 percent, it would save 1,200 to 3,500 lives and avoid 80 to 230 million occurrences of disease per annum equivalent to health cost savings of between US$170 and US$500 million per annum.

Hopke will work to strengthen the institutional and regulatory framework and capacity for building the air quality management in Bangladesh.

Together with the local air quality management consultant, he will support implementation of the environmental component of the World Bank's Clean Air and Sustainable Environment Project.

Hopke is a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Air Monitoring and Methods Subcommittee of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee as well as its Panel on Lead in Airborne Particulate Matter.

Hopke is the inaugural director of Clarkson's Institute for a Sustainable Environment.

He has served a decade as director of CARES, which fosters research in air sampling and analysis, receptor modeling, atmospheric deposition, and the application of computational fluid dynamics to air pollution problems.

He has served at the U.S. Department of State, where he served as a Jefferson Science Fellow. He has also served on many other EPA and NRC committees.

Hopke earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Trinity College and both an M.A. and Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University.

He joined Clarkson University as the Robert A. Plane Professor of Chemistry in July 1989.