Yale Professor Receives Monaco Award

“We are very delighted by this recognition of Michelle and her research, which reflects well on the strength and diversity of work at F&ES,” said Dean Peter Crane. “It is also extremely gratifying that the Monaco Award recognizes not only the excellence of Michelle’s research, but its great practical importance for public health and environmental policy.”
 
Dr. Bell joined Yale in 2004 and was promoted to professor in 2011. Her research investigates how air pollution and extreme weather contribute to mortality and affect health outcomes such as pregnancy, and how climate change could impact human health. Her work integrates epidemiology, atmospheric sciences, environmental engineering and biostatistics, and is global, with studies in the United States, Europe, Asia and South America.
 
Dr. Bell has conducted several landmark studies of environmental health. In 2004 she led the largest study to date of the health impacts of tropospheric ozone, establishing a clear link between ozone and premature mortality in 95 large U.S. communities covering about 40 percent of the U.S. population over a 14-year period. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
 
In one of the earliest and largest studies on climate change and air pollution, she estimated changes in ozone levels and the subsequent health response under climate change for 50 U.S. cities by linking air quality, meteorological and climate change models.