BAS2025

Paolo Civiero is Associate professor at the Department of Architecture of Roma Tre University, and vice coordinator of the Laboratory LFT&T (Technical Physics and Technology of building). His expertise is focused on technology and design applied to construction, sustainability and energy efficiency, with a multidisciplinary vision on new construction and rehabilitation projects at the building and district scale towards PEDs. He led the expert team of the Scalable Cities study on ‘Enabling and upscaling Positive Clean Energy Districts’. He is the member of numerous international research projects and initiatives (e.g. COST Actions, EERA JP Smart Cities, IEA EBC Annex 83, EIT Climate KIC) and P.I. of the research project PEDRERA-Positive Energy District Renovation at IREC in Barcelona. He currently covers the role of WG vice leader in the COST Action “PED EU NET”, and P.I. in several projects as MakingPEDs, and POSEIDON (DUT-2022 call), WeGenerate (Horizon Europe Built4People), and C.Lever (Scalable Cities call), and as coordinator of the sub task 1.1 focused on production, distribution and storage Electricity within the RomeTechnopole project.

Xudong Zhao is the Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, UK. He is distinguished for his academic leadership and pioneering work in renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency and building services to address global challenges in carbon neutrality and climate change. His work has led to important innovations in dew point cooling, solar PV/thermal, heat pipes and heat pumps, as evidenced by several international innovation awards, and a wide range of applications globally. He is a motivated academic who is extremely well cited, with a high profile in his specialist area, and is characterised by an ability to develop new scientific thinking, demonstrate at laboratory level and translate into an industrial scale.

Rosaria Volpe obtained her Ph.D. degree in Systems, Energy, Informatics and Telecommunication Engineering in 2018. She is Assistant Professor (Tenure-track) at the University of Catania. Her research activities include renewable energy communities design, modelling and operation, positive energy districts, energy management and control, renewable energy systems, energy efficiency and flexibility, simulations of energy systems, computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer. She serves as Principal Investigator of several projects on the topic of Renewable Energy Communities and Positive Energy Districts. She is an awardee of a Starting Grant on the topic of energetic and exergetic modelling or energy communities. Visiting Researcher at the University of the Basque Country in 2020 and at the Tokyo University in 2023. She is Leader of one of the Subtasks of the International Energy Agency, Energy in Building and Communities, IEA EBC Annex 83 "Positive Energy Districts". She teaches Applied Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer at the University of Catania. She is member of the Editorial Board of several Journals.

Da Yan is the Fellow of International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA). He serves as the Section Editor of International journal Energy and Buildings, Chair of China HVAC Society’s Building Simulation Committee, Chair of International Building Performance Simulation Association China Affiliation (IBPSA-China), Editorial Board Member of International Journal of Building Performance Simulation and Buildings. Professor Yan has devoted his work to the development of building performance simulation, research on quantitative description of occupant behavior, and low-carbon energy-saving technology in buildings. Prof. Yan has led more than 20 projects and published over 240 journal articles, including more than 120 SCI papers, H-index 37. Besides, he has published more than ten books and reports, and acquired over ten patents and software copyrights. In 2008, he was awarded the Second Prize of National Science Progress Award.

Dujuan Yang is an assistant professor of Information Systems in the Built Environment department at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e),Netherlands. Her research focuses on addressing urban development challenges by supporting sustainable and evidence-based decision-making processes. Dedicated to embracing emerging technologies in smart cities, Dr. Yang specializes in data-driven approaches for urban interventions including semantic digital twins and semantic information modeling. She works to bridge the gap between decision-makers' evolving needs and the availability of urban data, empowering stakeholders with relevant and timely information. Her expertise spans digital twin cities, sustainable cities, and urban digitalization, with a goal of optimizing urban resources. Dr. Yang's recent work explores innovative solutions for urban resilience, energy transition, and sustainability, emphasizing the role of semantic models and simulations in enhancing the interoperability and integration of urban data. She actively participates in multiple EU and locally funded projects aimed at developing sustainable buildings and cities and facilitating transitions to sustainable energy solutions. In addition, Dr. Yang serves as a guest editor for reputable journals and is a sought-after ad hoc reviewer for conferences and publications related to building, energy, environmental management, transportation, and sustainable urban development.

Liangzhu Leon Wang is a Professor at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, and Associate Director at Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies (CZEBS), formerly Centre for Building Studies, established in 1976 as the Canadian very first program of Building Engineering (a.k.a. Building Service/Architectural Engineering). He studies Resilient, Healthy, and Sustainable Urban Microclimate and Built Environment and has rich research experience in Building Fire Safety and Building Science. He published over 240 papers in urban microclimate, climate resilience, urban building energy modeling (UBEM), and building simulations and made substantial impacts on building standards, codes, guidelines, and international building performance simulation communities. His impact on public knowledge transfer and engagement with municipalities made him the International Research Communicator of the Year in 2021 and a Fellow of the International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). He led over $8 Million CAD funding with ~1/3 from industries and coordinated large-scale research projects, such as the recently awarded Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) project ($123 Million CAD) “Electrifying Society: Towards Decarbonized Resilient Communities” 2023-2030 – Theme 1: Smart, Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment - led by CZEBS, and many large infrastructure/research projects. He is an Associate Editor and Special Issue Editor of Journal of Energy and Buildings, and editorial board members of Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, and Journal of Building Simulation.

Jonn Are Myhren is the group leader for research in building technology and urban planning. The research is usually applied and done in close collaboration with the industry in the region. The research areas include sustainable construction and urban development, energy-efficient renovation, life cycle analysis, industrial wood construction, and healthy indoor climate. An example is the project “Dalarnas villa” - our own research villa - where various sustainable solutions are tested.

Dr. Ji Li’s research spans renewable-energy applications in buildings, integrated energy systems and demand-side response, and optimisation of low-energy and near-zero-energy buildings. He sits on several national technical committees—including the National Energy-Systems Standardization Committee, the Geothermal Committee of the Chinese Geophysical Society, and serves as Deputy Secretary-General of the Green Building & Low-Carbon Smart Energy Sub-committee of the China Energy Research Society and Industry Expert to the Regional Energy Committee of the China Association of Building Energy Efficiency. Dr. Li has led or co-led more than twenty national and provincial research projects. He has received over ten major awards, including the Beijing Science and Technology Progress First Prize, the Huaxia Construction Science and Technology First Prize and has been honoured as an “Outstanding Young Engineer” by the Architectural Society of China and an “Outstanding Young Scientific Worker” by the China Energy Research Society. Over the past five years, Dr. Li has published more than 40 SCI-indexed and core-journal papers, (co-)authored over twenty national, industry, and association standards, and obtained in excess of ten invention patents as well as multiple software copyrights. Internationally, he heads a Strategic International Science and Technology Cooperation sub-project under China’s 13th Five-Year Plan, fosters global collaboration on heat-pump and integrated-energy technologies, and represents China in ISO TC 205 WG9 and as the Chinese lead for IEA HPT Annex 55, actively advancing the standardisation and dissemination of low-carbon building-energy technologies worldwide

Dr. Bing Dong is a Traugott endowed Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at Syracuse University. He also serves as the Associate Director of the New York State Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems of Syracuse. Dr. Dong’s research interests span the broad area of smart buildings and cities, including energy efficiency, occupant behavior modeling at both building and urban scales, buildings-to-grid integration, building controls and diagnostics, and AI/ML applications for future smart buildings. He served as the Subtask 2 leader for IEA EBC Annex 79 and Annex 66, collaborating with 100 researchers from 16 countries. Dr. Dong has led 35 research projects that have resulted in research awards totaling over $20 million, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy (DOE), ARPA-E, NYSERDA, Honeywell, Carrier, and other industry partners. He has published more than 130 journal and conference papers and holds a dozen patents. Dr. Dong is the recipient of the 2018 IBPSA-USA Emerging Contributor Award, the 2019 NSF CAREER Award, and several best paper awards. He is the Associate Editor of the International Journal of Building Simulation and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Building and Environment. He also serves as the Vice Chair for ASHRAE TC 7.10, as well as on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Building Physics (2021-2025). Dr. Dong received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon.

Zhongming Shi is the Product Lead of the City Energy Analyst (CEA), an urban building energy simulation platform and one of the first open-source computational tool initiatives for the design of low-carbon and highly efficient cities. He owns CEA's strategic direction of increasing education, professional practices, and business outreach. He is also teaching a studio-based course named “Integrate-design Project” at ETH Zurich. The course addresses urban design issues informed by building energy performance. Zhongming completed his PhD at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore. Then, he worked as the project coordinator at the Cities Knowledge Graph Project at the Singapore-ETH Centre. Meanwhile, he was the lead principal investigator for the project of building-integrated agriculture in collaboration with the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore.

Qianwen Xu, Associate Professor in Department of Electric Power and Energy Systems, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. Presentation title: Coming soon Short Bio: Qianwen Xu is the director of Intelligent Sustainable Grid (ISG) Lab @ KTH, and co-director of Dig-it Lab (Vinnova competence center). Her research interests include advanced control, optimization and artificial intelligence application of sustainable power systems, microgrids and power converter systems. She has published over 50 technical papers, with 15 first-authored journal papers in top IEEE Transactions. She is Vice Chair in IEEE Power and Energy Society & Power Electronics Society, Sweden, and Vice Chair of IEEE Power Electronics Society Technical Committee (TC) 12- Energy Access and Off-Grid Systems. She is an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification and IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics.

Jinyue (Jerry) Yan obtained his PhD from Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden in 1991. He was Chair Professor and Head of Energy Department at Luleå University of Technology, Chair Professor at the Mälardalen University and KTH, and Director of the Future Energy Profile. He is now a Chair Professor of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is an active member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Professor Yan’s research interests include energy systems, renewable energy, and climate change mitigation. He has published over 400 papers in scholarly journals including Science, Nature Energy, and Nature Climate Change and is a highly cited researcher, with over 10 patents. He has received several awards including the Global Human Settlements Award, the EU Energy Islands’ Award, and Top100 Research2Business (Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences). In addition to his role as founding editor-in-chief of Nexus, he is the advisory editor-in-chief of Applied Energy, the founding editor of Advances in Applied Energy, and the founder of several international and inter-disciplinary research and development platforms and events.

Prof. Yiqun Pan is an expert in building performance simulation, energy efficiency, and sustainable building design with over 25 years of experience. She currently serves as an Adjunct Faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics and as a Visiting Professor at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Previously, Dr. Pan was a Full Professor at Tongji University's School of Mechanical Engineering for 16 years. Her research focuses on applying advanced techniques like big data analysis and machine learning to improve building performance and occupant well-being. Dr. Pan has led numerous research projects funded by prestigious organizations, including the China National Science Foundation and the U.S. Energy Foundation. Dr. Pan's work bridges academic research and practical applications, contributing significantly to the advancement of sustainable building technologies and carbon reduction strategies in the built environment

Dr. Gang Tan is the Qiushi Chair Professor at Zhejiang University and Founding Director of the Smart Materials for Architecture Research Laboratory (SMARL) at the university's Yangtze River Delta Innovation Center. A recipient of China's National Distinguished Scholar Award and Zhejiang Province's Leading Talent Award, he holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Tsinghua University and a PhD from MIT (2005). His professional career spans academic and industry expertise, including roles in energy consulting for the design and implementation of national-scale energy efficiency programs. Prior to his current position, he served as a tenured professor at the University of Wyoming. Dr. Tan's research focuses on smart building materials development, energy conservation systems optimization, and renewable energy integration. His national and local agencies funded research program has yielded publications in high-impact journals including Science, Joule, and Nature Communications. He has been ranked in Stanford University's World's Top 2% Scientists list since 2023. He also serves as Associate Editor for Building Simulation – An International Journal.

Dr. Shuqin Chen is the Vice-director of Building Technology Institute, Zhejiang University. She has presided over 17 national and provincial projects, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Programme, the Ministry of Science and Technology, International Cooperation Project, and the State-level Foreign Experts Project, etc. Her research results have been successfully applied in a number of major industrial projects. She has been awarded Elsevier China Highly Cited Scholar (2021/2022/2023), two second prizes of Huaxia Construction Science and Technology Award in China, two second prizes of Zhejiang Provincial Scientific and Technological Progress Award, ‘National Outstanding Youth in HVAC’, ‘Zhejiang University Qiushi Young Scholars’, etc. She has published more than 110 academic papers; published one monograph, co-authored five books; participated in the editing of 10 standards.

Georges Zissis, Professor, Chair of IEEE Smart Lighting Initiative, Université de Toulouse, FRANCE Presentation title: Sustainable Smart Lighting systems for buildings, latest achievements and future challenges! Short Bio: Georges Zissis, PhD, FIEEE, Vice-Dean Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Toulouse, IEEE Smart Cities Technical Community Chair. Born in Athens in 1964, has graduated in 1986 from Physics department of University of Crete in general physics. He got his MSc and PhD in Plasma Science in 1987 and 1990 from Toulouse 3 University (France). He is today full Professor in Toulouse 3 University (France). His primary area of work is in the field of Light Systems Science and Technology. He is especially interested in the sustainable smart lighting systems; system and metrology issues for solid-state lighting systems; standardization and quality issues for light sources; impact of lighting to energy, environment, quality of life, health and security; illumination and lighting. He is director of “Light & Matter” research group of LAPLACE that enrolls 20 researchers. He won in December 2006 the 1st Award of the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC) Centenary Challenge for his work on mesopic vision standardization for urban lighting systems (in conjunction with IEEE, IET and the Observer). In 2009, he won the Energy Globe Award for France and in 2022 he got the Alfred Monnier Award which is the highest recognition from the French Illuminating Engineering Society. He was Vice-Rector of Toulouse 3 University delegated to International Cooperation (2019-23). He was President IEEE Industrial Application Society (2019-20), and President of the Power Electronics, Electronics, Optoelectronics and System section of the French National Council of Universities (2014-19). He initiated and he chairs the IEEE Smart Lighting Initiative under IEEE Future Directions umbrella.