Lord Lewis Prize Recognises Academic Contributions to Air Quality and Climate Policies

The Lord Lewis Prize is awarded every two years by the Royal Society of Chemistry to recognise distinctive and distinguished chemical or scientific achievements, together with significant contributions to the development of science policy. As such, recipients of the Prize not only perform excellent research, but achieve significant impact in terms of their influence on policy, either at national or international levels.

Professor Alastair Lewis has received the 2022 Lord Lewis Prize for the promotion and application of the chemical sciences to support development of evidence-based policy and regulation in the fields of air pollution and climate change.

Ally Lewis is Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of York and works in the Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories (WACL). In addition to teaching and research at the University, he is a Science Director at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS). Professor Lewis is Chair of the Defra Air Quality Expert Group (AQEG) and the Department for Transport Science Advisory Council where he has a direct input into government decision-making on issues including energy, emissions, air quality and net zero. His personal research focusses on gas phase atmospheric chemistry and chemical metrology, with a particular focus on measurements of air pollutants. 

Air pollution is one of the most significant causes of preventable death world-wide and impacts people’s health irrespective of whether they live in high, middle- or low-income countries. Developing technologies and policies that improve air quality and deliver on climate objectives is complex since they must be tailored to the geography, transport and energy systems, climate and wider economy of any given location.

Professor Lewis’s own area of research includes the development of new technologies to measure pollution, field observations of pollution behaviour and transformation, through to the synthesis of evidence that can support government in managing and reducing national emissions. Indeed, his research is driven by developing science and evidence that supports successful actions and policies, with his team focussed on looking for evidence of interventions that can improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gases simultaneously.

The award recognises that Ally has played a central role in providing scientific advice to Government and Parliament, including the development of the UK clean air strategy, and new post-Brexit air quality standards set out in the Environment Act (2021). Early in the pandemic in 2020 he worked with Defra, the ONS and the Air Quality Expert Group completing a rapid review of the impacts of air quality on mortality rates from COVID-19, identifying inequalities in exposure to pollutants such as NO₂ and PM_2.5.

Reflecting on his Lord Lewis award, Ally said: "It is an amazing privilege to given this award, and especially so given the incredible scientists that have received it previously. I’m in a very lucky position working in WACL - I get the opportunity to explain the fantastic research work done here to decision-makers and then see it translated into practical action."

The Lord Lewis Prize was established in 2008 thanks to a generous donation from Johnson Matthey, and marks the significant contributions of Professor Lord Lewis to both chemistry and the advancement of science policy. There have only been eight winners of the award in total, and Chemistry at York has now been recognised with two of them. The previous Lord Lewis Prize winner from York was Professor Sir John Holman, who received the award for his extensive influence over chemistry education policy.