Climate change, sustainability, and cities

Prof Marialena Nikolopoulou is Professor of Sustainable Architecture at the University of Kent. With climate change being one of the biggest challenges our planet has faced, the focus of her work is on increasing the built environment’s adaptive capacity to climate change. She has led various projects on environmental performance of buildings and urban spaces, thermal comfort in different operational contexts, along with occupant perception and use of space.

Prof Gerald Mills is a physical geographer based at University College Dublin who works on the climate of cities. Gerald is especially interested in the climates that are generated by urban areas and potential for planning and design to create comfortable and healthy outdoor environments. Gerald's lifetime achievements in urban climate science were recognised by the 2021 Luke Howard Award.

Prof Sotiris Vardoulakis is Director of the NHMRC Healthy Environments And Lives (HEAL) National Research Network and Professor of Environmental Public Health at the University of Canberra Health Research Institute. For more than 25 years, Sotiris has advised national and local governments and international organizations on the health effects of climate change, air pollution and extreme events, and on sustainable development, health impact assessment, risk communication, and public health.

Dr Clare Heaviside is an Associate Professor at UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering. Her research interests cover climate change impacts - particularly on health, urban climate and meteorology, the urban heat island, air pollution and heatwaves. Her research is multi-disciplinary in nature, with application to the physical and environmental sciences as well as public health and policy.