Academic Staff

Professor Jianlei Niu received his BEng and MSc degrees from Tsinghua University and PhD from Delft University of Technology. He also had an experience of an R&D engineer with a utility manufacturer in UK during his tenure as a lecturer with Tsinghua University, researching on clean coal-combustion technologies. In the period from Feb 12, 2017 to Feb. 9, 2019, he was a Professor of Building, Environment and Energy, a conjoint appointment of School of Architecture, Design and Planning and School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney.

His technology contributions are in a broad area linking thermal and fluid sciences with building environment, and his current research topics include indoor environmental quality, thermal comfort, thermal energy storage, HVAC and urban microclimate. During his tenure with HKPolyU, he secured 18 RGC CERG/GRF grants, along with two ITF grants, two RFCID/HMRF grants and one RGC/NSFC joint grant, and one RGC CRF grant as a Co-PI. He has successfully supervised over 20 PhD students. He is currently leading a RGC Theme-based-research-scheme(TRS) project "Healthy and Resilient Cities with Pervasive LoCHs', aiming to develop a simulation-based-optimisation(SBO) method to create localised outdoor thermal-comfort hubs(LoCHs) by design in the urban and estate planning stage.

He is the editor-in-chief of the Elsevier journal Energy and Buildings. He was awarded the fellowship by three leading societies, ASHRAE(American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers), ISIAQ(International Society of Indoor Air Quality) Academy of Fellows, and IBPSA (International Building Performance Simulation Association) Academy of Fellows.

• BSc(Eng), Tsinghua University
• MSc(Eng), Tsinghua University
• Ph.D., Delft University of Technology

• Fellow of The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers
• Fellow of International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate
• Fellow of International Building Performance Simulation Association
• Fellow of American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers
• Chartered Engineer(UK); Registered Professional Engineer (Hong Kong)