"TERI mourns the passing away of Professor Kirk R Smith, a veteran researcher of, and campaigner against air pollution who breathed his last on Monday, 15 June 2020. We shall always cherish his association with us - which goes back to the 1990s when TERI had just begun research in the household energy space. Since then he has been a guiding force, directly or indirectly, to TERI on many research projects on household air pollution and exposure evaluation.
Dr Smith played a pivotal role in establishing the science of air pollution, and especially of indoor air pollution in developing countries. He also helped in bring attention to frameworks for indoor air pollution reduction, and for integrating air pollution and climate change. Dr Smith brought out the importance of a "clean" chulha into academic literature and public policy thinking.
TERI took up indoor air quality monitoring research in rural households in the early 2000s by collaborating with the University of California, Berkley under the leadership of Dr Smith and adopted the protocol developed by him for indoor air quality monitoring. Recently, TERI and Dr Smith along with other prominent research institutions, bonded together to constitute the Collaborative Clean Air Policy Centre (CCAPC) - housed at TERI's premises. All of us, at TERI, are committed to carry forward his shared vision of experiencing pollution-free lungs and clear blue skies."
- A message from Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General, TERI