Using government data, Lester Lave works with his undergraduate assistant, Eugene P. Seskin, to correlate air pollution and mortality rates in 100 cities throughout the United States. The correlation: more pollution in the air in an area means more people die.
Lave and Seskin report their findings in Science, a peer-reviewed journal that publishes significant original scientific research. The findings spark a media frenzy. The work influences the newly formed Environmental Protection Agency to set air quality standards and leads to Lave and Seskin publishing the first definitive book on the topic: Air Pollution and Human Health (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977).
For more than three decades, Lave-the author of more than 25 books and hundreds of articles in scholarly journals and the press-has been a leader in developing risk assessment tools and economic analysis on a wide range of environmental topics, including air quality and related health issues, and analysis and design of regulatory structures.
In recognition of his life's air-quality pursuits, he received the 2010 Richard Beatty Mellon Environmental Stewardship Award from the Air and Waste Management Association, which provides an outreach to more than 8,000 environmental professionals in 65 countries.
The award is given to an individual whose contributions of a civic nature have aided substantially in pollution abatement and for developing increased interest for the cause of air pollution control and waste management for the betterment of the environment.
Lave is the James H. Higgins University Professor of Economics at the Tepper School of Business, a professor of engineering and public policy, and co-director of Carnegie Mellon's Electricity Industry Center.
-Tom Imerito
