Distinguished Professor
Lidia Morawska

Biography

Lidia Morawska is a Distinguished Professor and Australian Laureate Fellow in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia. She is the Director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health (ILAQH) at QUT, a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Air Quality and Health; the Centre Director for the ARC Training Centre for Advanced Building Systems Against Airborne Infection Transmission (THRIVE) hosted at QUT; a Vice-Chancellor Fellow of the Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE) at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom; and an Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Environmental and Climate Research (ECI) at the Jinan University in Guangzhou, China. She conducts fundamental and applied research in the interdisciplinary field of air quality and its impact on human health and the environment, with a specific focus on science of airborne particulate matter. She is an author of >1,100 journal papers, book chapters and conference papers. Lidia has been involved at the executive level with a number of relevant national/international professional bodies, is an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 2024), a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (since 2020), Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 2021), Royal Society of Biology (since 2021), and is acting as an advisor to the WHO (since 1998). She is the recipient of numerous scientific awards including being named in the 2021 TIME100 annual list of the hundred most influential people in the world.

Lidia Morawska grew up in a city in the south-eastern part of Poland – Przemyśl. This is where she completed her primary and secondary education during her university years. She is a physicist and received her doctorate in 1982 at the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland for research on radon and its progeny. From 1982 to 1987, she was a research fellow at the Institute of Physics and Nuclear Techniques, Academy of Mining and Metallurgy, Cracow, Poland. She spent from 1987 to 1991 in Canada, conducting research first at McMaster University in Hamilton, as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and later at the University of Toronto. In 1991, she was appointed Senior Lecturer at QUT, as well as promoted to Professor in 2003. In 1992, she established the Environmental Aerosol Laboratory at QUT, renamed the ILAQH in 2002, when it became a WHO Collaborating Centre for Air Quality and Health. She is a long-standing collaborator and advisor to the WHO and has contributed to all WHO air quality-related guidelines since 1990, including co-chairing the Guideline Development Group (2006 – 2021), responsible for numerous standards.

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AWARDS

• 2024 The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Planetary Health Award, “in regard of your outstanding scientific work on air quality and its impact on human health and the environment.”
• 2024 Forbes Polish Women Magazine list of 50 women over 50 “who inspire, are brave in their decisions and achieve great successes, and go through life with the motto to develop new passions and professional careers.”
• 2023 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Award, “for her excellent research in the field of air pollution and its impact on human health and the environment, with a specific focus on atmospheric particulate matter. Her extraordinary dedication and impact have built a bridge from fundamental science to real-world policy and practice to provide clean air for all.”
• 2023 Matthew Flinders Medal, Australian Academy of Science
• 2023 Lung Health Legends Award, Lung Foundation Australia
• 2022 American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) Susanne V. Herring Award “in recognition of (her) outstanding research and contributions in the field of aerosol science that has had a significant impact on public health, the built environment, and the global ecosystem.”
• 2021 Honorary Fellow, Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand (CASANZ). “CASANZ has not awarded this honour to any member since the society was established in 1966—55 years ago—which makes this is the first time in CASANZ history that an Honorary Fellow has been presented.”
• 2021 ISIAQ Special 2020 Award for an Extraordinary Academic Leadership, International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ)
• 2017 AAAR David Sinclair Award
• 2011 Clean Air Medal, CASANZ for her “…sustained and dedicated contribution to the understanding of fine particles in the air.”
• 2004 Premier's Awards for Excellence in Public Sector Management for the nomination "Air Quality and Health Program" together with the Queensland Department of Public Works

UNIVERSITY AWARDS (QUT)

• 2021 Researcher of the Year, Faculty of Science 2021 Dean’s Outstanding Achievement Award, QUT
• 2021 Trans-disciplinary Research Excellence Award, in recognition of her “outstanding interdisciplinary research and leadership, with global impact”, QUT Centre for Data Science
• 2020 Vice-Chancellors’ Award for Leadership Excellence, QUT Recognition Program 2020
• 2018 Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research, Australian Museum of Eureka Prizes
• 2017 QUT Vice-Chancellor’s Performance Award “in recognition of a significant and superior contribution to the work of the university.”
• 2010 Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM), first ever ‘Outstanding Higher Degree (Research) Supervisor Award of HDR Students'
• 2001 Distinguished Fellow in Research Award, QUT Faculty of Science
• 1996 Outstanding Academic Contribution Award, QUT

OTHER RECOGNITION

• 2024 named in the ABC The Science Show’s Top 100 Australian Scientists
• 2024 received the Research.com 2024 Best Female Scientist Award and was ranked #2 in Australia and #84 in the world in the Best Environmental Sciences Scientists
• 2023 ranked #2 in Australia and #84 in the world in the Research.com Best Environmental Sciences Scientists
• 2023 Leader in the field of Environmental Sciences in the Research 2023 magazine
• 2022 ranked #13 in Australia and #435 in the world in the Research.com Ranking of Top 1000 Female Scientists in the World.
• 2021 named in the 2021 TIME100 annual list of the hundred most influential people in the world
• 2021 named in The Australian Lifetime Achiever & Superstar of Research in the Life & Earth Sciences field.
• 2020 named in the list of Top 40 Australian Researchers in The Australian Research Magazine in the Life Sciences & Earth Sciences section
• 2020 ranked in The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend's 40 Australians Who Mattered: Health and Science
• 2020 ranked 16,428 in the Stanford University ranking of 100,000 Top Scientists