Heat and Health Research Centre

We are incredibly excited to announce that the first data from our long-term collaboration with the Montreal Heart Institute (led by A/Prof Daniel Gagnon) has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine! 🎉 This research, which examines #accessible and low-resource cooling strategies for #vulnerable populations during #extreme #heat events, is a significant step forward in understanding how to protect those at the highest risk during heatwaves. A special congratulations to lead author Dr Georgia Chaseling, the University of Sydney lead Prof Ollie Jay, the Montreal Heart Institute lead A/Prof Daniel Gagnon, and of course, all of the co-authors for their hard work and dedication to this project. This study demonstrates the critical importance of #cooling interventions in #preventing #heat-induced #cardiac strain, and we’re extremely proud of the team’s achievements. You can read the full publication here: https://lnkd.in/g9VqWS3u This project was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) project grant (awarded in 2018).

It has been a fantastic couple of days attending the “Environmental challenge studies in an era of climate change” symposium hosted by the Centre for Safe Air at the University of Tasmania. Many innovative and ambitious projects were presented by an array of international researchers. I was fortunate enough to give an overview of the human heat exposure projects led by the Heat and Health Research Centre. A highlight of the visit included a tour of the Fire Lab, which is working hard to develop the infrastructure required to administer does-controlled air pollution to human participants in a temperature and humidity controlled chamber. It was great to learn more about what is required to build a PM2.5 exposure system, whilst sharing our experience of achieving tight temperature and humidity control in the Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory. Troy Cross also gave a great rundown of his NHMRC funded project which will explore how heat and bushfire smoke exposures interact to impact our health, wellbeing and ability to perform physical activity. Thank you to Fay Johnston for extending the invite at such short notice!

A huge congratulations to Dr Grant Lynch for receiving the University of Sydney John C Harsanyi Medal for Innovation - a 2024 Alumni Award. Grant is the Commercialisation and Industry Engagement Theme Lead at the Heat and Health Research Centre, and he is also leading the commercial venture of EMU Systems, which helps companies monitor and manage heat stress risks for athletes and workers. Congratulations, Grant! This is a well-deserved recognition for all your hard work in this space. https://lnkd.in/gj2WtjAZ

A huge congratulations to Dr Grant Lynch for receiving the University of Sydney John C Harsanyi Medal for Innovation - a 2024 Alumni Award. Grant is the Commercialisation and Industry Engagement Theme Lead at the Heat and Health Research Centre, and he is also leading the commercial venture of EMU Systems, which helps companies monitor and manage heat stress risks for athletes and workers. Congratulations, Grant! This is a well-deserved recognition for all your hard work in this space. https://lnkd.in/gj2WtjAZ

In this week's issue of Nature Magazine, Carissa Wong writes in detail about some of the work we are doing in the Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory in the Heat and Health Research Incubator at the University of Sydney, which seeks to bridge #climate science and #health through the discipline of #physiology. The article also features the ground-breaking work done by our good friends at Penn State University led by Larry Kenney and his team. Elegant in its simplicity, the original 35˚C wet-bulb temperature threshold for human survival due to heat stress established by the work of Steven Sherwood and colleagues was so fundamentally important for the wider community to understand the notion of #lethal #humidity. Now physiologists are refining these thresholds through climate chamber experiments with human participants to determine how these limits change based factors such as age, biological sex, and physical activity. In this and other work, we are exceedingly fortunate to be working alongside world-leading collaborators across a variety of disciplines including Jennifer Vanos (biometeorology), Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, Jane Baldwin and Steven Sherwood (climate science), Kris Ebi (epidemiology), Tony Capon (Planetary Health), Adrienne Gordon (neonatology), Camille Raynes-Greenow PhD (perinatal epidemiology), and fellow physiologists Larry Kenney, Dan Gagnon, Nicholas Ravanelli, George Havenith, Julien Périard and Aaron Bach. The work at the University of Sydney described in this article is led by our superb team that includes Jem Cheng, James Smallcombe, Ruindu Nethangie Ranhotty, Lee Jin, Jake McCahon, and Fauzan bin Maideen. https://lnkd.in/gUERTZSf

Over the past couple of months, we have been working with the brilliant Tyne Logan from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Climate Team who has been developing this interactive story board summarising the work we are just getting under way in the Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory at the Heat and Health Research Centre at the University of Sydney that is examining the upper limits of human survivability due to #heat stress with #climate change in young, healthy, and fully heat acclimated adults. This research project is being led by our post-doc fellow Jem Cheng, who is currently supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research | Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada post-doctoral fellowship with additional support from National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funding, and is supported by our two very impressive honours students Lee Jin and Jake McCahon. This project builds on the work we have been doing with our amazing collaborators Jennifer Vanos and Gisel Guzman from Arizona State University, Jane Baldwin from UC Irvine, Kris Ebi from University of Washington, and Coen Bongers from HAN University of Applied Sciences. https://lnkd.in/gRZb2zNg This story was also featured on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) TV News breakfast on Saturday morning: https://lnkd.in/e3xyxCHh And The Project on Channel 10 on Monday evening: https://lnkd.in/ecsZYwS7 Medicine and Health - University of Sydney

Join our team at the Heat and Health Research Centre at the University of Sydney! We are seeking a highly motivated recent (or soon to be) graduate in #exercise #science or related discipline to join us in a full-time Research Assistant role. The successful applicant will get to work on a range of exciting projects within the Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory. Salary: $86k p/a + 17% superannuation. Applications close: 13 Sept

What an amazing experience to be part of Team EMU Systems navigating through the CSIRO ON Accelerate 8 Immersion week in Brisbane with my team-mates Grant Lynch, John Eisenhuth, Federico Tartarini and Anthony Musumeci. Many thanks to Joanne Jacobs, David Ireland, Ian Brown, Andy Lamb, Emily Cullen and the rest of the ON team for delivering such a brilliant week of learning. “Making Heat Stress in Workplaces a Problem of the Past” EMU Systems… Here we go.. 🚀🚀🚀 Heat and Health Research Incubator, University of Sydney, Medicine and Health - University of Sydney

Thanks for covering our work on the co-designed pop-up mobile cooling hubs United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). We’re developing a blueprint so that others can replicate the service. Please get in contact if you would like updates or if you think you could collaborate with us. Big thanks to the Heat and Homelesness Emergency Activation Team (HHEATeam) - Matt Larkin, Dr Jane Currie, Jon Swain, Jo River, Alejandro Vásquez Hernández, Danielle Austin, and our team members with lived experience of homelessness. Thanks to our funders St Vincent's Health Australia and City of Sydney and ongoing support from the Heat and Health Research Incubator at Medicine and Health - University of Sydney. https://lnkd.in/gk3dKseE

Heat and Health Research Incubator Maternal and Child Health Theme Lead, Dr James Smallcombe will be presenting at the annual Beat the Heat Forum in Sydney on 29 February 2024. This event is presented by Urban Transformations Research Centre (UTRC), in collaboration with Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA), Hills Doctors Association and Sweltering Cities. A great line up of speakers discussing a range of topics centered around heat! Don’t miss out! You can register for the Beat the Heat Forum: https://lnkd.in/gjY9cSu4