Amanda Giang

Assistant Professor

Jointly appointed in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability
B.A.Sc. (University of Toronto), M.S. (MIT), Ph.D. (MIT), Postdoctoral Appointment (MIT, Harvard)

Research Interests

My research addresses challenges at the interface of environmental modelling and policy through an interdisciplinary lens, with a focus on air pollution and toxics. How can we use simulation, statistical, and qualitative methods to assess the environmental and health impacts of technology and policy? How do we take into account uncertainty in human, technological, and natural systems? And how can we use environmental modelling to better empower communities and inform policy decision-making, from local to global scales?

Current Research Work

• Modelling the prospective impacts of policy on the sources, fate, and transport of global toxic pollutants (mercury, persistent organic pollutants)
• Developing computationally efficient air quality modelling and risk assessment tools to support uncertainty analysis, stakeholder decision-making, and community organizing for environmental justice
• Developing data analysis methods (and assessment processes) for evaluating the effectiveness of environmental policy, given uncertainty

Selected Publications

• Rodgers, T., Giang, A., Diamond, M., Gillies, E., Saini, A. Emissions and Fate of Organophosphate Esters in Outdoor Urban Environments. Nature Communications, Accepted January 30, 2023.
• *Bhatt, R., Giang, A., Kandlikar, M. Incentivizing Alternatives to Agricultural Waste Burning in Northern India: Trust, Awareness, and Access as Barriers to Adoption. Environment Systems and Decisions, Accepted December 24, 2022. doi:10.1007/s10669-022-09892-w
• Ramachandran, A., Abdi, K., Giang, A., Gladwin, D., Ellis, N. Collaborative Research Training in Higher Education: An Exploratory Canadian Case Study. Higher Education, Accepted October 4, 2022. doi:10.1080/00131911.2022.2134312
• Li, M., Gillies, E.J., Briner, R., Hoover, C.A., Sora, K.J., Loseto, L.L., Walters, W.J., Cheung, W. and Giang, A. Investigating the dynamics of methylmercury bioaccumulation in the Beaufort Sea Shelf food web: a modeling perspective. Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts. 24(7), pp.1010-1025, 2022. doi:10.1039/D2EM00108J
• Giang, A., Boyd, D.R., Ono, A.J. and McIlroy-Young, B. Exposure, access, and inequities: Central themes, emerging trends, and key gaps in Canadian environmental justice literature from 2006 to 2017. The Canadian Geographer/Le Géograpje canadien. 66(3), pp.434-449, 2022. doi:10.1111/cag.12754
• Gardner-Frolick, R., Boyd, D.R. and Giang, A. Selecting Data Analytic and Modeling Methods to Support Air Pollution and Environmental Justice Investigations: A Critical Review and Guidance Framework. Environmental Science & Technology, 56(5), pp. 2843-2860, 2022. doi:10.1021/acs.est.1c01739
• *Rossa-Roccor, V., Giang, A., Kershaw P. Framing climate change as a human health issue – enough to tip the scale in climate policy? The Lancet Planetary Health, Viewpoint, 5(8), e553-e559, 2021. doi:10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00113-3
• Edwards, M.R., Giang, A., Macey, G.P., Magaivi, Z., Nicholas, D., Ackley, B., Schulman, A.. Repair Failures Call for New Policies to Tackle Leaky Natural Gas Distribution Systems. Environmental Science & Technology. 55(10), pp. 6561-6570, 2021. doi:10.1021/acs.est.0c07531
• Giang, A. and Castellani, K.. Cumulative air pollution indicators highlight unique patterns of injustice in urban Canada. Environmental Research Letters, 15(12), p.124063, 2020. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/abcac5
• Mulvaney KM, Selin NE, Giang A., Muntean M, Li CT, Zhang D, Angot H, Thackray CP, Karplus VJ. Mercury Benefits of Climate Policy in China: Addressing the Paris Agreement and the Minamata Convention Simultaneously. Environmental Science & Technology. 54(3):1326-35, 2020.
• Gorman HS, Gagnon VS, Giang A., Perlinger JA, Urban NR. Policy, science and transdisciplinary research: When will it be safe to eat as much fish as desired? In A Research Agenda for Environmental Management. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019.
• Angot H, Homan N, Giang A., Thackray CP, Hendricks AN, Urban NR, Selin NE. Global and Local Impacts of Delayed Mercury Mitigation Efforts. Environmental Science & Technology. 52(22):12968-77, 2018.
• Giang A., Song S, Muntean M, Janssens-Maenhout G, Harvey A, Berg E, Selin NE. Understanding factors influencing the detection of mercury policies in modelled Laurentian Great Lakes wet deposition. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. 20(10):1373-89, 2018.
• Perlinger JA, Urban NR, Giang A., Selin NE, Hendricks AN, Zhang H, Kumar A, Wu S, Gagnon VS, Gorman HS, Norman ES. Responses of deposition and bioaccumulation in the Great Lakes region to policy and other large-scale drivers of mercury emissions. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. 20(1): 195-209, 2018.
• Wolfe PJ, Giang A., Ashok A, Selin NE, Barrett SRH. “Costs of IQ Loss from Leaded Aviation Gasoline Emissions.” Environmental Science & Technology, 50(17):9026-33, 2016.
• Stokes LC, Giang A., Selin, NE. “Splitting the South: China and India’s Divergence in International Environmental Negotiations.” Global Environmental Politics, 16(4): 12-31, 2016
• Giang A., Selin NE. “Benefits of mercury controls for the United States.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(2):286-91, 2016.
• Giang A., Stokes LC, Streets DG, Corbitt ES, Selin NE. “Impacts of the Minamata Convention on mercury emissions and global deposition from coal-fired power generation in Asia.” Environmental Science & Technology, 49(9):5326-35, 2015.

For a full list of publications, visit my profile on: