Joint BTS/BPRS Symposium: Breathing from the start

Pia Hardelid is professor of epidemiology at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health where she leads the Environmental Child Health Research Group. Her work is primarily focused on the impact of the physical environment on children's health and development. She is the principal investigator for the Kids' Environment and Health Cohort,  a new, whole-nation administrative data birth cohort study funded by Administrative Data Research-UK, and co-director of the HDR-UK Social and Environmental Determinants of Health Driver Programme. She leads the CHILI Hub, which focuses on the child and adolescent health impacts of making nursery and school buildings more energy efficient.

Dr Shamil Haroon is a Clinical Associate Professor in Public Health at the University of Birmingham and a clinical epidemiologist specialising in respiratory and chronic disease research. His work spans long COVID, asthma, COPD, and multimorbidity, with a strong focus on using large-scale health data to improve early diagnosis, prevention, and patient outcomes. He has led and contributed to national studies on respiratory disease, primary care case-finding, and the health impacts of environmental exposures. Alongside his academic role, he works part time in general practice and supervises postgraduate researchers. His research aims to inform evidence-based policy and reduce respiratory health inequalities.