SOE, Tsinghua June 11th, 2018 (Liu Huan, Chen Chao, Gao Xiaojuan)Prof. He Kebin, the Dean of the School of Environment at Tsinghua University, was named as the Green China Person of the Year 2016-2017. This award, revealed on the World Environment Day on June 5th, recognized Prof. He’s academic contribution to China’s environmental protection. 

Prof. He has devoted himself to the research on complex air pollution problem, especially on PM2.5 for many years. He promoted the development and application of dynamic regional air quality management, which includes the high-resolution emission inventories, multi-dimensional source apportionments for complex pollution, and multi-pollutants collaborative control technologies. Prof. He led the establishment of an online  platform for the Multi-scale Emission Inventory in China (MEIC) and made great contribution in promoting China’s air quality management performance in the field of precise source-tracing and quantitative assessment.

In 2017, Prof. He was appointed as the deputy director of the National Air Pollution Control and Prevention Center. He is taking the lead to guide the “2+26” cities on emission inventory development. In addition, he is also the leader for proposing strategies on air pollution controls from major sectors, including metallurgy, building materials, coal, diesel engines, VOCs and etc. All the work above have made important contributions to  mitigate the heavy air pollution during autumn and winter. With these efforts, it was observed that the reduction of PM2.5 concentrations in Beijing, Tianjin and the neighboring regions reached more than 35% in the past 5 years and the PM2.5 concentration in Beijing was 58 μg/m3 in 2017. In addition, Prof. He acted as a core expert in the air quality protection task for a series of national events, such as the 2016 Hangzhou G20 Summit and the 2017 Xiamen BRICS Summit.

Green China Person of the Year is the highest award in the field of environmental protection given by the Chinese government. It was launched in 2005 to honor the green heroes who have made special contributions in environmental protection. Prof. Zhang Xiaojian, Prof. Hao Jiming, and the Green Association of Tsinghua Undergraduates , all from the School of Environment, were awarded the honor in 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively.