Montira Pongsiri’s primary research and science policy interests are in applying scientific understanding of the relationships between the condition of natural systems and human health to inform policy for long-term sustainability impact. She is an SEI Affiliated Researcher with SEI Asia Centre.

Montira was the first Science Advisor at the U.S. Mission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), leading the Mission’s efforts to develop and apply science and technology to support ASEAN’s sustainability goals, and to strengthen the capacity of science-based policy-making through programs such as the ASEAN-U.S. sustainable cities partnership and the ASEAN-U.S. Science and Technology Fellows Program.

Previously, she was an Environmental Health Scientist with the U.S. Mission to ASEAN from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Research and Development.

At the EPA, Montira developed and led a research initiative on biodiversity and human health which studied the links between anthropogenic stressors, changes in biodiversity, and infectious disease transmission. The research portfolio demonstrated public health impacts of improved ecosystem management. As the agency’s lead on technical partnerships with the Smithsonian Institution and with Rockefeller’s 100 Resilient Cities Global Challenge, she coordinated a cross-agency approach to apply science for impact.

As a member of The Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health, Montira brought expertise on environmental change-human disease linkages.  From 2018-2019, she was a Visiting Scientist at the UN Environment Programme Asia Pacific Regional Office where she worked on environment and health data integration into policy tools to address issues at the environment and health nexus.

She earned her Ph.D. at Yale University where she studied the risk-tradeoffs of the use of DDT for malaria control.

Publications

Pongsiri, M.J., Bickersteth, S., Colon, C., DeFries, R. Dhaliwal, M., Georgeson, L., Haines, A., Linou, N., Murray, V., Naeem, S., Small, R., Ungvari, J. 2019. “Planetary health: from concept to decisive action.” The Lancet Planetary Health 3 (10): e402-4.

Bassi, A. and Pongsiri, M.J. “Knowledge Integration with Systems Thinking for Improved Policy Effectiveness.” Scientific Report: Building the Next Generation of Research on Territorial Development. Ed. ESPON EGTC. Luxembourg, 2019. 24-28.

Loaiza J.R., Rovira J.R., Sanjur, O.I., Zepeda, J.A., Pecor, J.E., Foley, D.E., Dutari, L., Radtke, M., Pongsiri, M.J., Molinar, O.S., Laporta, G.Z. 2019. “Disturbance and mosquito diversity in the lowland tropical rainforest of central Panama.” Scientific Reports 7: 7248.