{"id":1083,"date":"2021-03-29T08:59:05","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T08:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/?p=1083"},"modified":"2021-03-29T14:46:24","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T14:46:24","slug":"1083","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/2021\/03\/29\/1083\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Grieve, Senior Air Quality Analyst, School of Public Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span><\/b>I\u2019ve been able to combine my twin passions of air quality and digital technology to design and develop several air quality apps over the years.\u201d<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

I suffered from asthma as a child and always had a\u00a0<\/span>V<\/span>entolin<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>inhaler\u00a0<\/span>in my pocket from primary school<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0so I was always interested in lungs and breathing and what would trigger an attack.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I studied Environmental then Computer Science at Stirling University and was keen to pursue a career in\u00a0<\/span>science but<\/span> ended up in the School of Public Health’s Environmental Research Group<\/a> (ERG) <\/span>somewhat <\/span>by accident after I saw a job advertised in the back pages of New Scientist\u00a0<\/span>–\u00a0<\/span>which I picked up by chance in Tesco on South Clerk St in Edinburgh. I never imagined I’d end up living and working in\u00a0<\/span>London<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0but I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have landed in ERG.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My current role is quite varied but it\u2019s broadly around communicating air quality. I\u2019ve been able to combine my twin passions of air quality and digital technology to design and develop several air quality apps over the years. I\u2019ve also loved collaborating with artists and theatre-makers on air quality projects and I\u2019ve just started discussions with an artist on a new project that\u00a0<\/span>I\u2019m<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>really excited\u00a0about.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The data from the\u00a0<\/span>London Air Quality\u00a0<\/span>Network<\/span><\/a> has been used by the government to investigate the relationship between long-term exposure and COVID<\/span>-19<\/span>\u00a0mortality, so keeping all the stations up and running has been a real priority for the team. We have also been rolling out a new network of air quality sensors to hospitals across London to provide additional data to\u00a0<\/span>NHS\u00a0<\/span>t<\/span>rusts and we\u2019re moving on to schools next. I also contributed to a documentary on the impact of coronavirus on the\u00a0<\/span>B<\/span>lack community with the actor David Harewood<\/span>\u00a0–<\/span>\u00a0it should be airing in March.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think like many teams I’ve been amazed at how well we have adapted to going from essentially all being in one room together to being remote for almost a year now. But it\u2019s also been tough. The loss of all those little human interactions you have in an office or lab or classroom or those chance conversations you have while you\u2019re washing your <\/span>cup<\/span> in the kitchen. And I\u2019m sure I speak for many when I say that homeschooling has put an incredible strain on work and home life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In September<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0we received a letter from the Mayor<\/span>\u00a0of London<\/span>\u00a0thanking us for keeping the network running and for feeding into the UK\u2019s Air Quality Expert Group call for evidence on the impact of lockdown on pollution levels in London. It meant a lot to us to receive that.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m currently recording drums for\u00a0<\/span>the<\/span> new album of a band I used to play in Edinburgh. We\u2019re all scattered across the country\u00a0<\/span>now<\/span>\u00a0but we started passing a few demos between us on email and having Zoom<\/span>\u00a0calls<\/span>\u00a0to discuss song structure<\/span>. I<\/span>t\u2019s sort of snowballed now into an album! It\u2019s nice to have something creative to do in the evenings.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019ve been able to combine my twin passions of air quality and digital technology to design and develop several air quality apps over the years.\u201d\u00a0 I suffered from asthma as a child and always had a\u00a0Ventolin\u00a0inhaler\u00a0in my pocket from primary school,\u00a0so I was always interested in lungs and breathing and what would trigger an attack.\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[294815],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-staff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1083"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1090,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions\/1090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}