HB2009 Plenary Speakers
Listen to interviews with HB2009 Plenary Speakers Bornehag, Cook, and Fernandes
As a prelude to Plenary Talks by Carl-Gustav Bornehag, Rick Cook, and Eduardo de Oliveira Fernandes, HB2009 presents short audio interviews of these three distinguished guests on the subjects of healthy built environments and green buildings. The interviews were conducted in Summer 2009 by Bruno Battistoli of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
- Carl-Gustav Bornehag - LISTEN NOW
- Rick Cook - LISTEN NOW
- Eduardo de Oliveira Fernandes - LISTEN NOW
Carl-Gustaf Bornehag
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Modern Exposures and Modern Diseases
Dr. Carl-Gustaf Bornehag is a professor in public health with a background in engineering and environmental medicine. He has conducted several large multidisciplinary studies on the importance of indoor environmental factors for health effects such as asthma and allergy and sick building syndrome symptoms. Recent studies are focusing on modern exposures such as endocrine disrupting chemicals and their importance for different modern diseases such as asthma and allergy, reproduction disorders, autism, obesity, etc. Bornehag is the principal investigator for two large epidemiological studies in Sweden: the Dampness in Buildings and Health (DBH) and one longitudinal birth cohort study, the SELMA study. He has been involved in Swedish national governmental inquiries regarding allergies and environmental-health issues and has been involved in European multidisciplinary reviews of the total scientific literature with regard to indoor environmental factors and health. Bornehag is associated with Karlstad University, Technical Research Institute of Sweden, and the International Centre of Indoor Environment and Energy at the Technical University of Denmark.
Ginger L. Chew
Green Housing—How can we better assess exposure and health outcomes?
Ginger L. Chew is an epidemiologist in the National Center for Environmental Health at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Chew’s research has focused on exposure assessment of aeroallergens and fungi in the indoor environmental of low-income children living in New York City (NYC). She has served as principal investigator on several epidemiologic studies of allergens and childhood asthma, one of which involved measurement of cockroach and mouse allergens in the NYC public school system. Chew also has served as the Chair of the Environment committee for the NYC Asthma Partnership. In 2005, Dr. Chew gave technical assistance to CDC for its environmental health response to Hurricane Katrina. She helped CDC to plan its air sampling strategy and subsequent data analysis and interpretation. In 2008, Chew joined the CDC to help its Lead Poisoning Prevention branch transition to Healthy Housing. She has been part of a team that is designing a nationwide study of low-income homes that have been renovated using green or traditional materials and methods.
Richard A. Cook
Drawing from Nature: Giving Form to Biophilia
Richard Cook is a partner at Cook+Fox Architects, a firm devoted to creating environmentally responsible, high-performance buildings. Cook has spent the last 20 years practicing architecture in New York City, during which time he and his firm have built a reputation for award-winning architectural design. Since founding Cook+Fox in 2003, Cook and his firm have been nationally recognized as designers for the Bank of America Tower, which will become the first LEED-Platinum skyscraper. His work has won awards from the American Institute of Architects, the Boston Society of Architects, numerous preservation organizations, and been featured at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. In 2006, Cook became a founding partner of Terrapin Bright Green, a strategic environmental consulting firm affiliated with Cook+Fox. Cook speaks frequently on sustainable design, and he has appeared on National Geographic, PBS, and the Discovery Channel. He has spoken at the UN and the US Green Building Council's Greenbuild conference, has been interviewed on National Public Radio, and has served on the World Trade Center Special Advisors Council. He is on the Board of the School of Architecture at Syracuse University, his alma mater.
S. Richard Fedrizzi—Opening Ceremony Keynote Speaker
Rick Fedrizzi is President, CEO, and Founding Chairman of the US Green Building Council (USGBC). Under his leadership, the USGBC has tripled its membership, broadened its influence, and cemented its role as a leadership voice in the global sustainability movement. Expanded outreach and education, advocacy support for public policy initiatives, and a heightened emphasis on green building’s role in social equity progress are part of Fedrizzi’s stated vision for the organization. A founder of the World Green Building Council, he is now an active member of its board. Fedrizzi also serves on the board of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Sustainable Buildings and Construction Initiative.
Robin W. Kimmerer
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Restoration and Reciprocity: Indigenous and Scientific Principles for Sustainable Communities
Dr. Robin Kimmerer is Professor of Environmental Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY and the Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, whose mission is to create programs which draw on both indigenous and scientific knowledge to reach shared goals of sustainability. Her research interests include the role of traditional ecological knowledge in ecological restoration and the ecology of mosses. In collaboration with tribal partners, she and her students have an active research program in the ecology and restoration of plants of cultural significance to Native people. She is active in efforts to broaden access to environmental science training for Native students and to introduce the benefits of traditional ecological knowledge to the scientific community, in a way that respects and protects indigenous knowledge. Robin is an enrolled member of the Citizen Band Potawatomi. Her writings include “Gathering Moss” which was awarded the prestigious John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing in 2005. She is currently working on a second book of essays on the subject of living in reciprocity with land, which incorporates both traditional indigenous knowledge and scientific perspectives. She is also the author of numerous scientific papers on the ecology of mosses and served as associate editor of The Bryologist.
Eduardo de Oliveira Fernandes
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EU Policies on Indoor Air Quality
Dr. Eduardo de Oliveira Fernandes is a professor in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal. Devoting more than 25 years of his career to teaching, research, consulting, and public outreach on various topics related to energy and environment, Fernandes’ innovative research on Building Thermal Physics and Passive Solar Technologies has resulted in pioneering work in Portugal on built environments, indoor air quality, and urban space. Fernandes has served as Portuguese Secretary of State for the Environment and as Secretary of State to the Minister of Economy for Energy and Innovation, as well as a member of the European Commission Working Group on Sustainable Construction Methods and Techniques, the European Commission Working Group on Indoor Air Quality, and as a World Health Organization adviser on indoor air quality.
Tom Kelly
IAQ, Policy, and Healthy Buildings in the US
Tom Kelly is Director of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (US EPA) Indoor Environments Division, where for the past six years he has led a staff of more than 50 scientists and communicators in non-regulatory programs to reduce public-health risk from indoor pollutants in homes, schools, and public buildings. Major program emphases include radon, asthma, schools, smoke-free homes and cars, and green buildings. Within its broad set of duties, the Indoor Environments Division develops and publishes authoritative guidance on building standards and practices to ensure high-quality indoor air (Indoor air PLUS, I-Beam, Design Tools for Schools, for example). The division conducted the landmark BASE study (Building Assessment Survey and Evaluation), which offers baseline measurements of key variables, such as ventilation and indoor contaminants, in 100 public and commercial buildings. New studies built on the foundation of BASE data are offering important insights into the management of IAQ in large buildings. Kelly comes to indoor air from an extensive background in environmental policy and management, having directed US EPA’s functions for program evaluation, regulatory procedure, and small-business regulatory review.
Yuguo Li
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Ventilation and Airborne Infections
Dr. Yuguo Li is a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the University of Hong Kong. Li was a Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader of Indoor Environments at CSIRO Australia before he joined the University of Hong Kong in 2000. He graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University and Tsinghua University in China, and received his Ph.D. in fl uid mechanics from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. His current research interests are city ventilation, heat island phenomena, engineering infection control, building ventilation, and energy effi ciency. His work led to the findings of the roles played by airfl ow and ventilation in the 2003 Amoy Gardens SARS outbreak. He carried out research on hospital ventilation in preparation for the infl uenza pandemic and was co-author of the 2007 WHO infection control guidelines. He is currently assisting WHO in drafting a new natural ventilation guidelines. Li serves as an Associate Editor of Indoor Air and as Editorial Board member in five other international journals. He is a fellow of ASHRAE and ISIAQ, received the HKU Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2003 and the Best Paper Award of Indoor Air Journal 2005-2007 (First Prize) in 2008. He served or serves as guest/adjunct/visiting professor in eight universities in China and overseas, including the Otto M.nsted Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Denmark (2008-2009).
Shin-ichi Tanabe
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IAQ and Human Performance
Dr. Shin-ichi Tanabe is professor of architectural environment at Waseda University in Japan. He is an expert in the fields of indoor air quality and thermal comfort. His research includes field surveys of thermal comfort on semi-outdoor space, environmental management systems with open networks, productivity and thermal comfort, a human thermoregulation model, and task ambient air conditioning systems. Tanabe worked at the Technical University of Denmark as a guest professor in 2002 and 2003. In 1989, he received the R.G. Nevins award from ASHRAE and the Prize of Outstanding Research from the Architectural Institute of Japan in 2002. He became an ASHRAE fellow in 2006.
