Prof. Chris Cunningham

Chris Cunningham is from the Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa, Te Ātiawa and Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāparangi tribes of Aotearoa, New Zealand.

He is Professor of Māori & Public Health in the Research Centre for Hauora & Health at Massey University’s Wellington campus.

Originally training in Quantum Chemistry, he has been a health researcher for over thirty years. Chris has a broad research portfolio covering public health and Māori health, with a focus on inequity, housing, longitudinal research and machine learning.

Chris has supervised over 50 Māori PhD and post-doctoral candidates.

Current projects include Indoor Air Quality in NZ Schools, Indigenous Governance, Cultural Competency in Health Professional Education, Medications Use in Older Māori, Loneliness and Social Isolation, Exceptional Cancer Survivorship, Housing & Health and longitudinal research including Te Hoe Nuku Roa: Best Outcomes for Māori and Growing Up in New Zealand.

Dr. Umberto Berardi

Dr Umberto Berardi is President of the International Association of Building Physics (IABP) and the President of the Canadian Acoustical Association. He is a leading researcher in the field of building science, formerly serving as Canada Research Chair in Building Science and as Director of the Building Science Technologies and Operation for People (BeTOP) Center at Toronto Metropolitan University. His work focuses on high‑performance building materials and systems, particularly the integration of advanced technologies such as bio-based phase change materials and granular aerogels to improve energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality. He has authored hundreds of publications that are widely cited in the building physics and sustainable buildings fields, and his research has been recognised with numerous international awards. Dr Berardi has chaired major conferences in building physics and sustainability, contributed extensively to editorial boards of leading journals, and has secured significant research funding from both government and industry. He also serves as CEO of BETOP srl, a spin-off company of the Politecnico di Bari (Italy) advancing building innovation.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hartwig M. Künzel

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hartwig M. Künzel has been head of the Hygrothermics Department at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Building Physics in Germany from 1994 until 2025. He is an expert in building physics, specialising in heat and moisture transfer in building materials, envelope assemblies and whole buildings. His research and international moisture control standardisation work helped to improve the performance and sustainability of constructions, securing healthy and comfortable conditions in living spaces as well as energy efficient and durable buildings.

During his PhD work, Künzel developed the hygrothermal model WUFI®, an internationally recognized and widely applied simulation model for moisture control in buildings. Künzel is an ASHRAE Fellow (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers) and has been principal reviser of Chapter 25 of the internationally renowned ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals. He is also an International Honorary Member of SHASE, the Japanese Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Sanitary Engineers.

Vicki White

Vicki White is a Senior Research Scientist at BRANZ, specialising in healthy housing, indoor environment performance and energy hardship.

Her work brings together deep technical expertise in building performance, advanced data analysis and energy use patterns in New Zealand homes. Through her leadership on major national studies including the BRANZ House Condition Survey and the Household Energy End-use Project 2 (HEEP2) she is helping build the most comprehensive evidence base yet on how Kiwi homes perform and how household energy demand is changing.

Vicki’s research explores the interactions between housing quality, energy use, and occupant wellbeing, with particular focus on energy hardship: the ability of households to achieve essential levels of heating, cooling, lighting, cooking and hygiene. Her work supports long-term strategies aimed at reducing emissions, improving home comfort and addressing inequities in energy access.

Before joining BRANZ, Vicki was a Research Project Manager at the Centre for Sustainable Energy in Bristol, England. There she led studies on fuel poverty, building energy performance and the consumer impacts of climate and energy policies, combining national datasets with simulation modelling to understand household‑level outcomes.

Vicki is recognised for her ability to translate complex data into insights that support healthier homes, more resilient energy systems and better outcomes for New Zealand communities.

Prof. Da YAN

Dr. Yan is a Full Professor from the School of Architecture, Tsinghua University. He is the Editor-in-chief of Building Simulation. He is also the Chair of IBPSA-China, and Chair of ASHRAE TC 7.10 on Occupant Behavior in Building.

His research mainly focuses on the development of building performance simulation software DeST, occupant behavior modelling, and low-carbon and energy-efficiency related policies. He has published over 270 journal articles and more than 10 books, with an H-index of 65 (by google). He is a Highly Cited Researcher released by Clarivate Analytics in 2025. During 2013 to 2018, he was the OA of IEA EBC Annex 66 with more than 100 participants from more than 20 countries, working on “Definition and simulation of occupant behavior in buildings”. He was the recipient of the Second Prize of National Science Progress Award of China. He became IBPSA Fellow from 2019 and won ASHRAE Distinguish Service Award in 2024.