Helen ApSimon

Helen Mary ApSimon, (born 28 April 1942) is an English air pollution scientist and academic. She is a professor of Air pollution Studies at Imperial College London. Her research includes the impact of acid rain, nuclear accidents and fine particulates on human health and ecosystems.

Early life and education Helen Mary Hollingsworth was born on 28 April 1942 in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England. She was educated at Northampton High School, an all-girls private school in Northampton, Northamptonshire. She went on to study mathematics at Somerville College, Oxford, graduating MA in 1963. She completed a PhD in astrophysics under Dick Carson at the University of St Andrews in 1966. In 1967, Helen Hollingsworth married Hugh ApSimon. He died in 1998. In the immediate aftermath, Russia issued a media blackout and ApSimon was one of few European scientists to detect rising radiation levels. She modelled the nuclear fallout, calculating Chernobyl released 15 – 20 megacuries of Iodine-131 and 1 – 2 megacuries of caesium-137. During the first few weeks after the disaster, ApSimon calculated the radioactive plum covered Scandinavia and the North coast of Europe. She travelled to Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria in 1988.

ApSimon has also worked extensively for Task Forces under the UN ECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, undertaking modelling and assessment of cost-effective strategies to reduce acidification, eutrophication, excess tropospheric ozone and fine particulate concentrations.

ApSimon is interested in the impact of urban air pollution on human health and ecosystems. In 1995, she calculated the cost of building damage due to acidic European atmospheres. In 1998, the UK Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions commissioned ApSimon to study investigate the cost-effectiveness of controlling the shipping emissions in the North Sea. In 1999, ApSimon was a member of the Royal Society Global Environmental Research Committee. In 2004, she contributed to the European Commission National Emission Ceilings Directive Review. ApSimon was invited to chair a new Heathrow air quality expert review group in 2017.

Honours In the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours, Helen ApSimon was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to air pollution science.