University Professor P. Ole Fanger to lecture on challenges in indoor environmental engineering

University Professor P. Ole Fanger to lecture on challenges in indoor environmental engineeringJune 13, 2006SU News ServicesSUnews@syr.edu

University Professor P. Ole Fanger will deliver a two-part lecture to the Syracuse University community on the topic “Future Challenges for Research and Practice in Indoor Environmental Engineering” during a visit to campus next week.

He will give the first part of his lecture, “Impact of Indoor Air Quality on Health, Comfort, Productivity and Learning,” on Wednesday, June 21, at 9:30 a.m. Part two, “How to Improve Indoor Air Quality While Saving Energy,” is Thursday, June 22, at 10 a.m. Both presentations will be in Room 369 of Link Hall.

Fanger, the world’s leading expert on the effect of the indoor environment on human comfort, health and productivity, and a senior professor at the International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy at the Technical University of Denmark, was named a University Professor at SU in March. As a University Professor, Fanger supports the University’s environmental systems initiative that is embodied in the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (CoE) and its associated STAR Center for Environmental Quality Systems.

For more than three decades, Fanger has conducted interdisciplinary research that has contributed to identifying the prime importance of the indoor environment for human comfort, health and productivity. His pioneering work on thermal comfort and indoor air quality provides the scientific foundation for standards all over the world.

Fanger developed a comfort model for indoor quality, predicting perceived air quality in the indoor environment and required ventilation in buildings. He showed, through extensive field studies, that pollution from building materials, electronic devices and HVAC systems is often a major reason for poor indoor air quality. He and his associates at the University of Denmark documented for the first time that poor indoor air quality in homes increases the risk of asthma/allergy among children and that mediocre indoor air quality in offices decreases productivity. They showed that indoor air quality can be improved many times by using new technology while saving energy, with huge benefits for the national economy and for the quality of human life. Among his numerous international awards and honors, Fanger received an honorary doctor of science degree from SU in 2005 and was the keynote speaker at the second annual Syracuse Symposium on Environmental and Energy Systems in 2002.