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Ilias Kavouras, PhD
Ilias Kavouras

Ilias Kavouras

Associate Dean, Academic Affairs and Professor

901.678.1696228 Robisonkavouras@memphis.edu

Curriculum Vitae

About

Dr. Ilias Kavouras is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor in the University of Memphis School of Public Health. His research focuses on environmental health, air pollution, climate change, exposure science, and the health effects of emerging environmental threats such as wildfire smoke and electronic cigarettes. With more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and extensive externally funded research, Dr. Kavouras's work on climate change and health aims to evaluate climate‑related health risks, develop sentinel systems for climate‑biosphere interactions, and strengthen the public health workforce’s capacity to respond to emerging environmental threats.

Selected Publications

  1. Cabrera-Rivera LT, Delgado A, Maroko A, Sethi SA, Midya V, Chowdhury M, Branco BF, Kavouras I, Nabeel I. Linking precipitation-driven flooding events to acute respiratory illness in New York city, The Journal of Climate Change and Health. (2026), 29, 100697.

  2. Vorosmart CL, Trujillo M, Casaccia P et al., A Climate BioStress Sentinel System: Identifying climate impacts from the genome to the urbanized biosphere. Cell Reports Sustainability, (2025) 2(11), 100558.

  3. Kelesidis GA, Moularas C, Parhizkar H, Calderon L, Tsiodra I, Mihalopoulos N, Kavouras I, Korras-Carraca MB, Hatzianastassiou N, Georgopoulos PG, Cedeño Laurent JG, Demokritou P. (2025). Radiative cooling in New York/New Jersey metropolitan areas by wildfire particulate matter emitted from the Canadian wildfires of 2023. Nature Communications, 6(1), 304. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02214-3

  4. Jia C, Zhang H, Batbaatar N, Naser AM, Li Y, Kavouras I. (2025) Clean Air Benefits and Climate Penalty: A Health Impact Analysis of Mortality Trends in the Mid-South Region, USA. Climate. 13(3):45. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli13030045

  5. Cedeño Laurent, J. G., Parhizkar, H., Calderon, L., Lizonova, D., Tsiodra, I., Mihalopoulos, N., Kavouras, I., Alam, M., Baalousha, M., Bazina, L., Kelesidis, G. A., & Demokritou, P. (2024). Physicochemical Characterization of the Particulate Matter in New Jersey/New York City Area, Resulting from the Canadian Quebec Wildfires in June 2023. Environmental science & technology, 58(33), 14753–14763. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c02016

  6. Lee, B. Y., Pavilonis, B., John, D. C., Heneghan, J., Bartsch, S. M., & Kavouras, I. (2024). The Need to Focus More on Climate Change Communication and Incorporate More Systems Approaches. Journal of health communication, 29(sup1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2024.2361566

  7. Miousse, I. R., Hale, R. B., Alsbrook, S., Boysen, G., Broadnax, T., Murry, C., Williams, C., Park, C. H., Richards, R., Reedy, J., Chalbot, M. C., Kavouras, I. G., & Koturbash, I. (2023). Climate Change and New Challenges for Rural Communities:mParticulate Matter Matters. Sustainability, 15(23), 16192. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152316192

  8. Goldfarb, D. G., Prezant, D. J., Zeig-Owens, R., Hall, C. B., Schwartz, T., Liu, Y., & Kavouras, I. G. (2024). Association of firefighting exposures with lung function using a novel job exposure matrix (JEM). Occupational and environmental medicine, 81(2), 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2023-109155

  9. Hardell J, Silver EJ, Kavouras I, Lee DD, Gross E. (2023) Childhood asthma in the Bronx, NY; the impact of pollutants on length of hospital stay. Journal of Asthma, doi: 10.1080/02770903.2023.2225607

  10. Goldfarb D, Prezant D, Zeig-Owens R, Schwartz T, Kavouras IG. (2023) Development of a job-exposure matrix (JEM) for exposure to smoke particle mass among firefighters of the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY). Occupational and Environmental Medicine, oemed-2022-108549. doi: 10.1136/oemed-2022-108549