Expert insights on the causes, impacts and aftermath of the L.A. wildfires

UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and UCLA’s Sustainable LA Grand Challenge invite you to a special virtual event:

“Expert insights on the causes, impacts and aftermath of the L.A. wildfires”

Featuring an informative panel of wildfire, water quality, air quality and climate science faculty experts.

Alex Hall
Climate science expert
Director, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Faculty Director, UCLA’s Sustainable LA Grand Challenge
Director, UCLA Climate and Wildfire Research Initiative (CWRI)

Greg Pierce
Water quality expert
Research and Co-Executive Director, UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI)
Director, UCLA Water Resources Group and Human Right to Water Solutions Lab
Adjunct Associate Professor, UCLA Department of Urban Planning, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

Yifang Zhu
Air quality expert
Associate Director, UCLA Institute of the Environment and
Sustainability’s Center for Clean Air
Professor, Environmental Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

Moderated by

Nurit Katz
Chief Sustainability Officer
University of California, Los Angeles

Thursday, January 23, 2025 5:00 p.m. PT
Livestreaming via Zoom

Click to register for the webinar

Instructions to join the webinar will be provided once your registration has been confirmed.

About the panelists:

Alex Hall is director of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES) and faculty director of UCLA’s Sustainable LA Grand Challenge. He is one of the nation’s leading experts on climate change and has worked extensively on reducing climate change uncertainty at both regional and global scales. Hall’s work includes studying the role climate change plays in increasing the intensity and impact of climate-related disasters, like wildfires, and how communities can prepare for a world of increasing climate risk.

Greg Pierce is research and co-executive director of the Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI), faculty in the Department of Urban Planning and an affiliate of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES), including directing the UCLA Water Resources Group. He has done extensive research on planning for and governance in water systems (in LA specifically), as well as the affordability, quality, and accessibility of water. Pierce’s expertise includes the impact of water systems on wildfires, the impacts of wildfires on water infrastructure and post-fire water safety.

Yifang Zhu is associate director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability’s Center for Clean Air. She is also a professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health. Her research focuses on measuring and modeling air pollutant emissions, transport, and transformation as well as assessing and mitigating the associated health effects. She has led projects evaluating the co-benefits of climate mitigation on air quality and human health in Los Angeles.