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Plenary Speaker Prof. Edward Ng | Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
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Biography: Prof. Edward Ng is Professor of Architecture in the School of Architecture of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He is the first incumbent of the Yao Ling Sun Endowed Chair in Architecture. He specializes in Green Building, Environmental and Sustainable Design, and Urban Climatology for City Planning. As an environmental consultant to the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Professor Ng developed the performance-based daylight design practice note, the Air Ventilation Assessment Technical Guidelines, and the Urban Climatic Maps for City Planning. Professor Ng has published over 500 papers and 3 books. He has twice received the International Award from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and twice been honoured by the UNESCO Asia Pacific Heritage Jury Commendation for Innovation Award. He was the recipient of the 2010 Red Cross Humanitarian Award. His design project won the World Building of the Year Award at the 2017 World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Berlin. He has been honoured by Cambridge University with a prestigious Doctor of Science (DSc) degree.
Speech title: Serve the People
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Mat Santamouris | UNSW Sydney, Australia
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Biography: Prof. Mat Santamouris is a Professor of High Performance Architecture at UNSW, and past Professor at the University of Athens, Greece. Visiting Professor of Cyprus Institute, Metropolitan University London, Tokyo Polytechnic University, Bolzano University, Brunel University, Seoul National University, National University of Singapore, and UITM Univ Malaysia. Past President of the National Center of Renewable and Energy Savings of Greece. Editor-in-Chief of the Energy and Buildings Journal, Past Editor-in-Chief of the Advances in Building Energy Research, Associate Editor of the Solar Energy Journal, E- Prime, Journal of Low Carbon and Sustainable Energy, and Member of the Editorial Board of 24 Journals. Prof. Santamouris is a Highly Cited Researcher in the Clarivate ranking for 4 consecutive years.
Speech title: Impacts of urban overheating and recent developments on heat mitigation technologies |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Nyuk Hien Wong | National University of Singapore, Singapore
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Biography: Prof. Nyuk Hien Wong is the Vice Dean of the School of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Prof. Wong has carried out extensive research on the Urban Heat Island effect in Singapore and explored various mitigation measures such as the effective utilization of urban greenery and cool roof materials. Prof. Wong's honors include the Local Merit Scholarship, Public Service Commission, Singapore, Building Science Gold Medal, National University of Singapore. He has published 151 research articles in journals, and 21 book/monograph contributions as author/co-author. He is a member of many national and international advisory boards and editor board.
Speech title: CoolNUS BEAM initiative - use of NUS campus as living laboratory for UHI assessment and mitigations |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Davide Del Curto | Politecnico di Milano, Italy
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Biography: Professor Davide Del Curto is Vice Rector of the Mantua Campus and a Full Professor of Architectural Conservation at the Politecnico di Milano. His research currently focuses on the preventive conservation and restoration design of the architectural heritage as well as the relationship between heritage preservation and environmental sustainability, as part of the REACT EUPON 2014-2020 program. He has managed national and international research programmes. He has also taken part in conservation and restoration activities for monuments in Europe, Asia and South America, from antiquity to modern times, such as St. Andrew's Basilica in Mantua, the National Art Schools of Cuba and the Modernist Architecture of Tashkent.
Speech title: Climate Changes Architecture |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Chao Ren | HongKong University, China
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Biography: Prof. Chao Ren is a Professor at the University of Hong Kong. She specializes in climate responsive design, applied climatology, and urban-scale climate change and health. She has contributed to several international collaborative research reports as a lead author, including the IPCC AR6, Climate Change and Cities ARC3.3, the 7th Global Environment Outlook, The United in Science 2023 , the China Annual Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change and the 5th China National Assessment Report on Climate Change. She has been named in the World’s Top 2% of Scientists List by Stanford University and Top 1% Scholars by Clarivate. Chao is co-Chief Editor for Urban Climate since 2024. She serves on the management committee of the Global Heat Health Information Network, a joint initiative of the World Health Organization and the World Meteorological Organization, and the steering committee of the Health Knowledge-Action Network of Future Earth.
Speech title: My 20 years (2006-2026) Urban Heat Island research |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Zhaolin Gu | Xi'an Jiaotong University, China
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Biography: Prof. Zhaolin Gu is currently working as a Professor in Environmental Science and a previous Executive Dean of the School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, and Director of the Joint Center of Urban Climate and the Built Environment Research. He is an Associate Editor of Indoor and Built Environment and a member of the editorial board of Aerosol and Air Quality Research and Journal of Xian Jiaotong University. His current area of research focuses on multiple-phase flow in Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Building Energy Consumption Integration, and Technology Development of Potential Energy Savings and Renewable Energy.
Speech title: Understanding the Spatiotemporal Differentiation of Local Heat Islands — Observation and Multi-scale Numerical Simulations |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Alberto Muscio | Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy
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Biography: Prof. Alberto Muscio from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia is the director of the Energy Efficiency Laboratory (EELab) of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and president of the Italian Association for Thermophysical Properties (AIPT). He graduated cum laude in Engineering of Materials at Modena and then got a Ph.D in Thermal Fluids from the University of Bologna. His research is focused on energy efficiency of buildings and HVAC systems, measurement of thermophysical properties, and development and testing of surfaces with high solar reflectance.
Speech title: The M-Cycle at 50: From Dew-Point Cooling to Heat-Resilient Cities |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Xing Shi | Tongji University, China
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Biography: Prof. Xing Shi is a tenured Professor and PhD Supervisor, Vice Dean of
Speech title: Radiative Cooling Materials for Urban Buildings: Energy and Carbon Implications Across Building, District, and City Scales |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Priya Rajagopalan | RMIT University, Australia
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Biography: Prof. Priya Rajagopalan is the Director of the Post Carbon Research Centre for Infrastructure and the Built Environment and Associate Dean in the School of Property, Construction and Project Management. Her research interests span from sustainable building design, energy benchmarking and labelling, urban heat island, building performance simulation, indoor air quality, lighting and acoustics to citizen science in urban microclimate monitoring, mitigation and adaptation. As an internationally recognized expert in the field of building energy and indoor environmental performance and urban climatology, she has secured large competitive grants, led multidisciplinary teams and developed new knowledge and innovative methods for climate change mitigation and adaptation which are adopted by the industry, communities and governments.
Speech title: Emerging Anthropogenic Heat Sources-Characterization and Countermeasures |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Hideki Takebayashi | Kobe University, Japan
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Biography: Prof. Hideki Takebayashi's research interests include climate analysis for urban planning and studies on the cooling effect of built-up areas by cold drainage flow on summer nights. Prof. Takebayashi has published more than 170 research papers, 20 books, and 480 conference papers. He is currently a scientific member of Japan Heat Island Society, Japan Agricultural Meteorological Society, Japan Association for Wind Engineering, The Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan, and Architectural Institute of Japan. Prof. Takebayashi has received research prizes from Japan Heat Island Society, The Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan, and Architectural Institute of Japan.
Speech title: Adaptation Measures for Extreme Heat in Urban Core Redevelopment: A Case Study from Kobe City |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Jian Hang | Sun Yat-Sen University, China
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Biography: Prof. Jian Hang is a professor and Vice Dean of the School of Atmospheric Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University, and named among the World,s Top 2% Scientists in 2023. His research focuses on urban microscale turbulence, thermal environments, and surface energy balance, with contributions spanning field observations, numerical modeling, theoretical development, and mechanism analysis. He has published over 130 SCI-indexed papers, including six highly cited papers, with more than 4,500 citations and an H-index of 41. He has led six projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, including the Excellent Young Scientists Fund, as well as several national and provincial research projects. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of Urban Climate.
Speech title: High-resolution measurements and multi-scale simulation toward sustainable urban climate design |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Alexander Baklanov | University of Copenhagen, Denmark & University of Helsinki, Finland
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Biography: Alexander Baklanov (PhD in Physics & Mathematics (Geophysics) – 1983, Dr.Sci. in Physics & Mathematics (Meteorology and Climatology) – 1998, Professor in Meteorology – 2008) has more than 30 years of experience in environmental and atmospheric research, in particular in developing a new generation of online coupled meteorology-chemistry models, especially for urban applications. He has published about 400 scientific publications, including 14 books and almost 200 peer-reviewed papers. He led many international research projects, supervised 12 PhD students, and is a visiting/adjoint/honour professor in four European universities, a member of the Academy of Europe and the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, organiser of international scientific conferences and young scientist summer schools, Editor in chief of the Urban Climate journal. Worked in international research teams in Russia, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland.
Speech title: Climate-Smart and Resilient Cities: from UHI Mitigation to Integrated Urban Climate Services and Sustainable Solutions |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Andreas Matzarakis | Universität Freiburg, Germany
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Biography: Prof. Andreas Matzarakis wrote his habilitation on the "thermal component of the urban climate". Between October 2001 and July 2015, he was senior research associate at the University of Freiburg, where he was appointed Adjunct Professor in October 2006. From August 2015 to March 2024, he was head of the Research Centre Human Biometeorology of the German Meteorological Service. Between 1996 and 2014, he chaired the commission for climate, tourism and recreation of the International Society of Biometeorology, and he was vice-president of the International Society of Biometeorology between 2006 and 2009. Since 2016, he is the chairman of the German Society for the advancement of medical-meteorological research.
Speech title: Heat in Cities – Quantification, warning systems and heat health action plans to protect humans |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Anna Laura Pisello | University of Perugia, Italy
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Biography: Prof. Anna Laura Pisello is Professor of building physics and energy systems at the University of Perugia and founder of the Environmental Applied Physics Lab. She is the author of more than 150 international refereed journal articles. She won seven international academic awards and European projects under the framework of the Horizon 2020 program. She is the Associate Editor of Solar Energy, an editorial board member in several international journals, e.g., Energy and Buildings, Energy Research and Social Science, etc. Her research interests cover innovative smart materials for building envelope multifunctional optimization and thermo-physics characterization, and indoor-outdoor microclimate for environmental comfort and energy saving, with dedicated attention to dense urban areas and city resilience to climate change.
Speech title: Climate-Proof Is Not Enough: Cities for a Hotter Future From Urban Resilience to Human Wellbeing through Adaptation and Mitigation by Design |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Ning Zhang | Nanjing University, China
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Biography: Prof. Ning Zhang is a Professor at the School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, China, and Deputy Director of the Key Laboratory of Urban Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration (CMA). He previously worked at the Zhejiang Institute of Meteorological Sciences and conducted postdoctoral research at Jackson State University. His research focuses on atmospheric boundary-layer meteorology, urban air quality, and urban meteorology and climate. He has developed numerical models for urban microscale climate and pollutant dispersion using empirical approaches, large-eddy simulation, and Reynoldsaveraged methods, and is a major contributor to the urban canopy model developed at Nanjing University.
Speech title: Numerical studies of urban heat island and wind risk |
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Keynote Speaker Sarah Yuko Schneider | Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC), USA
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Biography: Sarah Yuko Schneider is the Deputy Director of the Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC). She joined the CRRC in 2013 and oversees policy and standards development, maintains the organization's accreditations to ANSI and ISO/IEC 17065, and conducts outreach and education in the U.S. and internationally. Ms. Schneider is also the CRRC Quality Manager, Lead Internal Auditor, and Authorized Representative for codes and standards advocacy. Prior to the CRRC, she supported California energy utilities in the development of energy and water efficiency codes and standards, developed stakeholder outreach materials for California's Marine Protected Areas, and managed a municipal energy program in Northern California. Ms. Schneider has a Master's degree in Public Policy with a focus on Environmental Justice and a B.S. in Environmental Science.
Speech title: The Key to Scaling Cool Surface Deployment |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Aijun Yan | Xi'an Thermal Power Research Institute Co., Ltd., China
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Biography: Professor Aijun Yan serves as an ISO Chinese Expert and IET Chartered Engineer. He has long been engaged in research and engineering application covering power system materials science as well as energy and power technologies for climate change mitigation.
Speech title: Research on Surface Albedo Modification for Climate Mitigation and Market Design |
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Keynote Speaker Prof. Taro Hongo | NIKKEN SEKKEI Ltd., Japan
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Biography: Dr. Taro Hongo is an Associate in the Global Business Development Group, Global Business Department at Nikken Sekkei. He joined the firm in 2007 after completing his master’s degree at Waseda University, where he specialized in machine and facility design. His work focuses on creating buildings that are enjoyable to experience, practical to use, and widely appreciated. He has managed a range of architectural and renovation projects, including the bicycle parking facility at Oshiage Station, the Bank of Chengdu Main Office, the Ebisu Subaru Building, the Sumitomo Corporation next-generation office, and the YKK80 Building, as well as facility renovations for the National Museum of Western Art and the Chubu Electric Power Chiyoda Building. He also continues to explore innovative approaches to greening air-conditioning condenser units using sweet potatoes.
Speech title: Mitigating Urban Heat Islands with Greenery: Energy-Saving Technology and Applications of Sweet Potato Greening for Rooftop Air-Conditioning Units |