On 4 November 2024, the 2024 NJU - Leeds Symposium on Air Pollution, Climate and Health was successfully held at Nanjing University. Professor Steve R. Arnold from the University of Leeds visited the School of Atmospheric Sciences (SAS) of Nanjing University and gave lectures on 'Air pollution, climate and health: pathways, mitigation and priorities' and 'Particulate and ozone pollution under climate change and mitigation: sources, processes, and impacts'. Air pollution and climate change are intricately linked, and recent research has highlighted the substantial global burden of disease from air pollution health impacts. The lectures introduced some of the links between air pollution and climate change, and focused on human-made and natural sources of air pollution in the context of environmental change and priorities for air pollution mitigation. After that, Associate Professor Sujia Lou of School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University and Assistant Professor Haotian Zheng of the NJU Nanjing-Helsinki Institute, Nanjing University gave lectures on 'Understanding organic aerosols: Impacts on climate and health' and 'Health-oriented Air Pollution Control in China' respectively.
After the symposium, representatives of Nanjing University and the University of Leeds held a panel discussion. During the discussion, the two universities discussed the possibility of conducting a series of online symposium and in-person workshop in the fields of atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric dynamics, climate science and data science on a monthly or bimonthly basis. The two universities hope to take this visit as an opportunity to actively promote the construction of an international talent training system in Atmospheric Sciences, and to make greater progress and substantive achievements in the construction of innovation platforms, cultivation of high-level talents, and fusion of scientific and educational resources, so as to jointly build a highland of international talent cultivation with bilateral features.