Kevin Perry is a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Utah. He has studied the climatic and health effects of particulate matter for more than two decades, a research focus that took on major importance with the shrinking of the Great Salt Lake. Perry, riding a fat-tire bicycle, surveyed the 800-square mile exposed lakebed and found mineral dust from the lake contains high concentrations of toxic metals.

To date, Perry has shared his research in three documentary films and more than 115 print, radio and TV interviews, including Popular Science, Discover Magazine, Outside Magazine, Newsweek, CNN, Le Monde and The Guardian. He has presented his findings to numerous policy-making organizations, such as the Utah Air Quality Board, Utah Clean Air Caucus, and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.

Perry has presented to many health care groups, including the Utah Public Health Association and the Central Utah Healthcare Coalition. He is a member of the Great Salt Lake Strike Team and the Dust Alliance for North America. Perry has participated in many educational outreach activities, focused mostly on high school students.

He is the recipient of the University of Utah Early Career Teaching Award (2006), the Utah Medical Association Environmental Award (2015) and the Career & Professional Development Center Faculty Recognition Award (2018). Perry is a member of the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union and has published 38 peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapters and a monograph, “Framing the Problem: Causes and Consequences of a Shrinking Great Salt Lake.”