Harvard Catalyst Profiles

Brief Bio:
Dr. Amir Baniassadi is an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Assistant Scientist in Marcus Institute for Aging Research. He works on climate change and environmental health, and in particular, environmental impacts on health and well-being of older populations. He has a Ph.D. in Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering from Arizona State University and a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tehran. His post-doctoral training includes a three-year T32 fellowship in Translational Research in Older adults, and a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Research Summary:
Dr. Baniassadi works on the impacts of ambient air temperature and air quality (both indoors and outdoors) on outcomes related to the health and well-being of physiologically and socioeconomically vulnerable populations. His research applies novel environmental modeling and measurement techniques along with remote and long-term physiological and functional monitoring of individuals to establish relationships between exposure and outcome variables of interest outside clinical lab settings. The ultimate goal of his research is to develop environmental interventions that help older adults become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

Key Research:
1) The effect of home ambient temperature on sleep, gait and balance, and subjective wellbeing in low-income older adults
2) Biologically adaptive control of the bedroom temperature as an intervention to improve sleep in older adults
3) Climate change resilience and adaptation in older adults

Publications: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/amir.baniassadi.1/bibliography/public/