Reflections on Future Challenges in Indoor Environmental Quality Research
Time
August 24, 2026, at 9:00 AM (Danish Time)August 24, 2026, at 3:00 PM (Beijing Time)
Contact Us
Email: jbdejournal@sciexplor.comSpeaker
Prof. Pawel Wargocki
Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.
Pawel Wargocki is a professor at the Technical University of Denmark. He is an academic teacher, scientist, industry consultant, and IAQ expert. He is a mechanical engineer by education. He has expertise in environmental psychology, physiology, and exposure monitoring, with over 30 years of experience in research on human requirements in indoor environments. He is a Fellow of ISIAQ, REHVA, and ASHRAE. He graduated from the Warsaw University of Technology in Poland and received his Ph.D. from the Technical University of Denmark, where he has been teaching and performing research ever since. He is known for his seminal work demonstrating that poor indoor environmental quality affects the performance of office work and learning. His research significantly influenced the requirements for indoor air quality, ventilation, and air cleaning. His research has recently focused on studies of human emissions, sleep quality, the development of IEQ rating schemes, the performance of green buildings, solutions for reducing infection risk and air cleaning, as well as interactions between different indoor environmental domains. He has trained and educated numerous students and scholars. He has collaborated with leading research institutions, universities, and industrial partners worldwide, including the National University of Singapore, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Waseda University in Tokyo, the Syracuse Center of Excellence, United Technologies, Velux, Boeing, and Google. He was the President and a long-standing board member of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate(ISIAQ), President of the ISIAQ Academy of Fellows (previously the Academy of Indoor Air Sciences), Vice President of the Indoor Air 2008 conference, and Chair of several ASHRAE committees. He has been invited to many conferences as a keynote speaker and received several awards for his work and papers. Moreover, he published extensively.
Introduction
Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) research has achieved substantial scientific maturity, yet its societal impact remains limited. This talk reflects on why strong evidence has not translated into widespread implementation, arguing that the historical focus on comfort and acceptability constrains both ambition and policy relevance. Comfort‑based frameworks aim to avoid dissatisfaction but are fundamentally misaligned with the World Health Organization’s definition of health, which emphasizes complete physical, mental, and social well‑being.
The talk highlights that the primary challenge is no longer evidence generation but implementation, performance verification, and real‑world exposure. The commonly accepted separation between indoor and outdoor air is also challenged through the ONE AIR paradigm, emphasizing continuous exposure across boundaries.
To address these limitations, a health‑centered definition is proposed, introducing the concept of a health‑sustaining indoor physical environment. Indoor air quality is reframed as a critical resource with societal and economic value comparable to water or energy. The talk concludes by identifying key challenges related to scaling, affordability, and integration into public health and environmental policy, aiming to make healthy indoor environments a universal condition.
