Martin Williams (environmental scientist)

Martin Lloyd Williams (22 November 1947–21 September 2020) was a Welsh chemist and environmental scientist who made important contributions to the science of air pollution and its incorporation into public policy in the United Kingdom. Williams was one of the first scientists to recognize the harmful health effects of ground-level ozone, in papers published in Nature in the mid-1970s, and one of the first to study vehicle emissions in the real world (rather than under artificial laboratory conditions). He also established the first systematic programme to produce inventories of UK national air pollution emissions.

Early life
Born in Mountain Ash, Williams studied chemistry at University College, Cardiff, took a Ph.D. at Bristol University, and held research fellowships at the University of British Columbia and the University of Bradford.

Government career
In 1975, he became a government scientist at the Department of Industry's environmental research centre, Warren Spring Laboratory in Stevenage, and served as Head of the Air Pollution Division there, leading a team of 50 scientists, from 1982 to 1993. He moved to the UK government's Department of Environment in 1993. In 2005, he became head of the air quality and science programme at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, where he focused on translating air pollution science into effective government policy, and developed three national air quality strategies for the UK.

Academic career
In 2010, Williams returned to academia as a professor and Head of Science Policy and Epidemiology in the Environmental Research Group at King's College London, where his research interests included the air quality in London, the measureable health benefits of improved air quality, and the connections between climate change and air pollution. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Urbino, Italy.

Other activities
Apart from his government and academic appointments, he was chair of the scientific arm of the UN Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP), co-chair of the World Health Organization (WHO) working group on air quality guidelines, an air quality adviser to the US Environmental Protection Agency, and a member of the UK government's two scientific, air pollution advisory committees (AQEG and COMEAP). In 2019, he became one of three Clean Air Champions (alongside Sir Stephen Holgate and Jenny Baverstock) appointed by the UK government's Clean Air programme, tasked with using scientific research to inform practical solutions to the problem of air pollution. Shortly before his death, the Institute of Air Quality Management invited him to be its inaugural Honorary Fellow.

Williams died in 2020 of the heart condition hemopericardium.