BIOGRAPHY
Universitair Medisch Centrum (UMC) Utrecht, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care
Dr. Downward is an Associate Professor at UMC Utrecht and an affiliated researcher at the Institute of Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS), Utrecht University, where his research focus examines how environmental and planetary disruptions, in combination with personal risk factors, contribute to communicable and non-communicable disease. He has a special interest in planetary health, vulnerable groups, and low-middle income countries.
He undertook his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Otago, New Zealand from 2005 to 2005. Afterwards, he received a degree in Master of Science in Public & Global Health from Umeå University, Sweden. In 2015, George was awarded his PhD in Environmental Epidemiology from Utrecht University for his thesis titled “Quantification and characterization of household air pollution exposure from the use of solid fuels; Clues to the lung cancer epidemic in Xuanwei and Fuyuan, China”
He is a member of several consortia, including the Precision Medicine for more Oxygen (P4O2) and Household Air Pollution Consortium (HAPCO), and has received multiple grants and recognition in the past years, including the Health Effects Institute project, “Long-term outdoor air pollution and cause-specific mortality in a pooled analysis of Asian cohorts”. George’s publications examine the relationship between our changing world and human health in a variety of ways as exampled by recent publications on air pollution on health, the role of scenario analysis in achieving the SDGs, and the importance of sex and gender disaggregated data.
Exposome & Planetary Health Research Group, Department of Global Public Health and Bioethics, Julius Centre for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht.
Originally a medical doctor from New Zealand, George now works to coordinate the Exposome and Planetary Health research group at the Julius Center in the University Medical Center Utrecht. He is heavily involved in Planetary Health activities in the Netherlands and internationally, including serving on the Planetary Health Strategic Community board, and co-hosting the Planetary Health Alliance’s European Hub.
His interests include examining how the triple planetary crisis of climate change, environmental pollution, and biodiversity loss impact our most vulnerable, despite them often contributing the least to the problem. He is especially proud of the work he has done with the CATA-Earth consortium, an Erasmus+ educational capacity building consortium which for the last 18 months has been building innovative Planetary Health education with partner universities in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Spain, and The Netherlands.