Harvard Catalyst Profiles

Brief Bio:
Dr. Amir Baniassadi is a T32 Research Fellow working on environmental health and in particular health and well-being of older adults within the built environment. Before joining the Marcus Institute, Dr. Baniassadi was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he researched climate adaptation and mitigation within the built environment. He has a Ph.D. in Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering from Arizona State University and a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Tehran.

Research Summary:
Dr. Baniassadi works on the impacts of ambient air temperature and air quality (both indoors and outdoors) on outcomes related to health and wellbeing of physiologically and socioeconomically vulnerable populations. His research applies novel environmental modelling and measurement techniques along with remote and long-term physiological and functional monitoring of individuals to establish relationships between exposure and outcome variables of interest outside clinical lab settings. The ultimate goal of his research is to develop environmental interventions that help older adults become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

Key Research:
1) The Home Environment Health Study: A longitudinal observation study that monitors older adults within their home environment over several months. The goal of this study is to establish relationships between home ambient temperature and outcomes related to sleep, cognitive function, and subjective wellbeing of older adults
2) Studying Thermal Resiliency of the Built Environment to Heat waves: Using physics-based simulations, Dr. Baniassadi studies how housing characteristics and design contribute to indoor and outdoor (within the urban canopy) exposure to heat during periods of hot weather.

Publications: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/amir.baniassadi.1/bibliography/public/