Prof. Zhai’s Fulbright project, entitled “Improving Indoor Air Quality and Occupant Health for Affordable Housing in Hot and Humid Climates,” aims to develop holistic knowledge of indoor air quality (IAQ) status of affordable housing in hot and humid climates (i.e., Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia), and propose appropriate and cost-effective solutions to improve IAQ and occupant health via an integrated research and education approach. The findings can assist the development/promotion of innovative building designs, materials, and technologies and the improvement/enforcement of local building standards and codes. The to-be-developed “live” IAQ monitoring and analysis platform can stimulate occupants’ awareness of healthier living environments and encourage cross-disciplinary studies on occupant health.
This six-month Fulbright project is supported by Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta (Indonesia), the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), and Thammasat University in Bangkok (Thailand).
Dr. Zhai is a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CUB) and the site director of the US NSF Building Energy Smart Technologies (BEST) Center. He has a unique and integrated background in architecture and engineering, with a PhD in Mechanics from Tsinghua University and a PhD in architecture from MIT.
Dr. Zhai’s research and teaching interests and expertise include integrated building systems, indoor and outdoor environmental quality, sustainable building, and urban design.
Dr. Zhai is the Fulbright Scholar of the US Department of State and the Global Leader Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
He is a fellow of The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), The International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ), and The International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA).
Dr. Zhai is a PI/Co-PI for over 50 projects, has published over 200 technical papers, and was ranked the World’s Top 2% Scientist by Stanford University.
