Building Systems professor receives Fulbright for holistic approach to indoor air quality – Building Energy Smart Technologies (BEST)

From CU Boulder:

“Indoor air quality is a global concern, given the significant time people spend indoors and its impact on respiratory health.

Professor John Z. Zhai, an expert in building systems engineering and indoor air quality (IAQ) at CU Boulder, has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to address this issue in affordable housing in hot and humid climates. Zhai’s work will focus on not only the technical aspects but also the influence of cultural practices on indoor air quality.

“We will include human and social perspectives into the equation,” said Zhai, a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. “As far as I know, no one has looked at indoor air quality in that way in the region.”

From December to May 2024, Zhai will conduct research in three hot and humid countries: Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, with a goal to monitor house air quality conditions and analyze potential environmental and societal impact factors. The study will further develop mathematical models that predict indoor contaminant distributions and evaluate various mitigation strategies. His research will particularly focus on affordable housing, a sector which often encounters more IAQ challenges due to lower budgets, poor design and inexpensive building materials.”