2023 Focus Meeting of the Pacific Basin Consortium for Environment and Health - Project Summary/Abstract
The Pacific Basin Consortium for Environment and Health (PBC) will partner with Louisiana State University
Superfund Research Program (LSU SRP) investigators to develop a series of meetings on topical themes. An
alternating schedule of one-day focus meetings on hot topics and full International Conferences has been
planned from 2021 to 2026. This application is limited to the 2023 focus meeting, but the full plan is
outlined for context.
• 2021 Focus meeting, Brisbane, Australia, Environmental impacts on infectious disease. [R13 2021]
• 2022 Conference, Jeju Island South Korea, Environmental exposures in a changing climate. [R13 2022]
• 2023 Focus meeting, Louisiana State University, USA, Pandemic planning – lessons from COVID-19. [this
application]
• 2024 Conference, Hanoi, Vietnam, Theme TBA.
• 2025 Focus meeting, CRI Bangkok, Thailand, Theme TBA.
• 2026 Conference, NIAID Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Theme TBA.
Focus meetings will be held within universities (or similar) over one-day, facilitating virtual attendance and
participation. Full conferences will be held over 3 ½ days and include training workshops, plenary sessions,
symposia, poster presentation sessions, and a dedicated unopposed session for student oral presentations.
The Focus meetings and Conference themes align with the NIEHS SRP mission and NIEHS Strategic Goals 2018-
2023, advancing environmental health sciences, promoting the translation of scientific knowledge to action, and
enhancing environmental health sciences through stewardship and support. The PBC has a long history of
working with regional Universities and Professional Societies to maximize the participation of local trainees
(students and postdoctoral fellows) and junior faculty in line with SRP goals. All PBC Conferences have similar
objectives: promoting human and environmental health through education and practice in toxicology,
engineering, and sanitation, and focusing on priority environmental health issues in the host country. Each
conference has been attended by 250-300 participants with 60% or more coming from the Asia-Pacific region.
We request $25,000 from NIEHS to (i) facilitate conference organization, (ii) incentivize the participation of
trainees, early career researchers, and young professionals, with a particular focus on female and
underrepresented minority participation, through travel grants and registration waivers, and (iii) facilitate the
attendance of local trainees through accommodation and registration support. The meeting program costs are
estimated at $50,000. Additional support will come from the PBC, LSU, Pennington Biomedical Research
Center, and the non-profit organization for Advancing Research for Children's Environmental Health (ARCeH).
