Andreas K. Athienitis

Dr. Andreas K. Athienitis is a Professor of Building Engineering at Concordia University. He is the Scientific Director of the NSERC Smart Net-zero Energy Buildings Strategic Research Network (SNEBRN: 2011-2016)and the founding Director of the NSERC Solar Buildings Research Network (SBRN:2005-2010). He holds a Senior NSERC/Hydro Quebec Industrial Research Chair and a Concordia University Research Chair, Tier I. He obtained a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (1981) from the University of New Brunswick and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo (1985). He was profiled as one of 25 top innovators in Quebec by Actualité Magazine (Sep. 15, 2009). Heis a Fellow is of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Fellow of IBPSA and Fellow of ASHRAE.

His research expertise is in solar energy engineering, energy efficiency, optimization and control of building thermal systems, building‑integrated photovoltaics and daylighting. He is the author/co-author of more than 200 refereed papers, three books on building thermal and solar modelling and design, and more recently an advanced book on modelling and design of net-zero energy buildings. He is a recipient of seven best paper awards,including ASHRAE Willis H. Carrier award. He has served as Associate Editor ofthe ISES Journal "Solar Energy" and in ASHRAE Technical Committees.He has received several awards, including an NSERC-ADRIQ (Association pour le développement de la recherche et de l'innovation du Québec) Celebrate Partnerships Award in 2012. His international activities include subtask leaderfor IEA SHC/ECBCS Task 40/Annex 52 focused on net-zero energy solar buildings,and contributing author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)for Direct Solar Energy. He led several innovative projects demonstrating building-integrated photovoltaic/thermal systems such as the John Molson School of Business building at Concordia and the energy design of the first near net-zero energy demonstration house in Canada, the EcoTerra.

He has received more than $22 M of research grants as P.I. including approximately $14 M for the SBRN and SNEBRN research programs (2005-2016). In 2011 he led the development of the $4.6M Solar Simulator and Environmental Chamber (SSEC) laboratory at Concordia. He has supervised over 70 students at all levels, eight of whom have become professors in Canada, the US and overseas. He has served both as Graduate Program Director and Undergraduate Program Director of Building Engineering, a unique academic program at Concordia. He is the founding Director of the Concordia Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies (2012), in which he leads a group of about 10 researchers and 50 graduate students and staff towards national and international initiatives.