Stanford COVID-19 Research: Marshall Burke
About Marshall Burke
Marshall Burke, an assistant professor of Earth system science at Stanford University and cofounder of Atlas AI, discussed his research on air quality improvements during the COVID-19 pandemic in an April 2020 interview. Burke said that as the epidemic developed in China, he observed "massive economic disruption" and became interested in its impact on air quality. He reported that he pulled data from air quality monitors and measured a "substantial improvement" of about 20% in air quality in places like China, and then attempted to measure the health benefits of those improvements, which he described as "quite large." Burke stated that these calculations help illustrate "the hidden costs of the status quo" and expressed hope that lessons from the epidemic could lead to maintaining environmental quality improvements. He noted that his own personal carbon footprint was expected to be down about 80% that year due to canceled travel, and as someone who studies climate change, he called that "a really good outcome." Burke said he hoped that the forced experimentation during the pandemic would lead to changes in personal behavior.