A QUT PhD student is undertaking potentially lifesaving research as she explores the global implications of heat waves on public health.
Yan Zhang, a joint Growing the Smart State PhD Funding and QUT-CSC (Chinese Scholarship Council) scholarship recipient, said despite significant correlations between mortality rates and heat waves, there are large research gaps in the area.
She said the aim of her research is to expand the traditional meteorological definition of heat waves, which can then be used to build a knowledge base to inform public policy.
“Heat waves affect humans, animals and plants. It’s not enough to just look at heat waves from a meteorological view point,” she said, adding there are also economic implications, such as lost productivity.
“With this research I don’t want to just develop theories, I want to develop something that I can apply to help the global community.”
A tragic example of the effect of heat waves occurred in Northern France in August, 2003, where over a three-week period of sustained high temperatures, deaths rose by 60 per cent compared to the mortality rate over the same period the previous year.
Yan said this implies that geographical areas where the population is not acclimatised to high temperatures are hit hardest, and her research could help to develop strategies to avoid future disasters.
Yan is undertaking her research at QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), where she is part of an eight-member team researching the health implications of climate change.
She said Australia was an ideal destination for her research because of its large geographical area with many climate variations.
Indicating the international significance of her research, she is collaborating with the University of Queensland and Australian National University, as well as the University of Beijing.
QUT stood out to Yan for her research project because of the University’s reputation for delivering practical, research-based solutions to global issues.
“I think QUT is famous for the connection with the real word,” she said.
“Before I came to QUT I knew about its real-world reputation, and I admire that.”
Prior to coming to QUT, Yan completed a Bachelor degree in Medicine and then a Master of Epidemiology/Biostatistics, both undertaken at Anhui Medical University, Hefei City, in Anhui Province. She expects to complete her research into heat waves in 2009.
