Dr Sierra Clark is an environmental epidemiologist and Lecturer in Population Health, evaluating how environmental pollutants and housing affect population health across diverse socio-economic contexts.
Her research centres on three main areas:
Noise exposure assessment & health impacts: Conducting field-based monitoring studies and developing spatial exposure models to characterise environmental noise pollution. Her research investigates the impacts of noise on annoyance, sleep, cardiovascular health, and mortality through primary epidemiological studies and evidence reviews in the UK and internationally. Sierra previously led the development of the largest and longest-running noise monitoring network in a sub-Saharan African city and is supporting ongoing epidemiological studies of noise and child health in Accra, Ghana.
Indoor air quality, housing & health: Investigating the health impacts of indoor air pollution, damp, mould, and housing quality throughout the life course, through a combination of primary data collection and the use of existing UK longitudinal health cohort datasets, with a focus on addressing health inequalities.
Environmental burden of disease quantification & policy translation: Quantifying population disease burdens associated with environmental exposures at global, national, and local scales, translating epidemiological evidence into actionable insights to inform environmental health policy.
Sierra is currently Principal Investigator of the MASS-Home study, a co-investigator on the EPSRC-funded AirHub Network, and an elected committee member of the UK Indoor Environments Group (UKIEG). Drawing on her previous experience as an Environmental Public Health Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), she continues to work closely with government research partners as an Honorary Public Health Academic at UKHSA and through consultancy work with other government agencies.
