Gen Pei

Gen Pei is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Future Human Habitats, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School. He previously served as a Research Associate in the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Architectural Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and his B.S. in Building Environment and Equipment Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University. His research lies at the intersection of building science, artificial intelligence, and public health, focusing on the co-optimization of sensing and control for indoor environmental quality; physics-informed AI for indoor environmental prediction; and resilience of indoor environmentsto extreme weather and disasters. He has published more than ten papers in leading journals, including Environmental Science & Technology, Sustainable Cities and Society, and Building and Environment, and was invited for over 60 peer reviews for journals including Nature Climate Change. He has received the ASHRAE Graduate Student Grant-In-Aid and two competitive research grants from the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). He also developed CoBE-EU, an online platform for assessing the climate and public health co-benefits of building decarbonization in the European Union.

The lab welcomes applications for Ph.D., postdoctoral, and research assistant positionson an ongoing basis. Applicants with backgrounds in architecture, architectural engineering, HVAC systems, computer science, data science, artificial intelligence, environmental engineering, public health, or related fields are encouraged to send their CVs to gpei@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn.

August 2018–May 2022, Pennsylvania State University, Architectural Engineering, Ph.D.
September 2016–August 2018, Pennsylvania State University, Architectural Engineering, M.S.
September 2012–June 2016, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Building Environment and Equipment Engineering, B.S.

October 2026–Present, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Assistant Professor
July 2024–August 2026, Harvard University, Research Associate
May 2022–June 2024, Harvard University, Postdoctoral Research Fellow

2017–2018, Vice President, Penn State ASHRAE Student Branch

Peer reviewer for journals including Nature Climate Change, Environmental Science & Technology, Building and Environment, Energy and Buildings, Journal of Building Engineering, etc. 

His research lies at the intersection of building science, artificial intelligence, and public health, with a focus on healthy, intelligent, and climate-resilient buildings. His multiscale research spans indoor pollutant transport and exposure mechanisms, intelligent control of building environments, and assessment of climate and health benefits. His main research areas include:

(1) Co-optimization of sensing and control for indoor environmental quality: Integrating computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with low-cost sensor networks to reconstruct pollutant concentration fields from sparse observations, optimize sensor placement, and develop ventilation and air-cleaning control strategies, enabling the joint design of sensing and control.

(2) Transferable physics-informed AI models for indoor environmental prediction: Incorporating principles of building physics and pollutant transport mechanisms into AI models to improve predictive accuracy, physical interpretability, and transferability across buildings and climates, while reducing data requirements in new settings.

(3) Resilience of indoor environments to extreme weather and disasters: Investigating changes in indoor environmental conditions, occupant exposure risks, and proactive control strategies duringweather events such as extreme heat and humidity, typhoons, and flooding to enhance buildings’ capacity to adapt to climate hazards and protect occupant health.

He has extensive experience in CFD modeling of indoor environments and mechanistic research on indoor pollutants, providing a foundation for integrating physics into data-driven models. He has conducted long-term monitoring using low-cost sensor networks in commercial buildings, wildfire-affected homes, and schools in low-resource settings in Africa, gaining field experience across climates and building types. He co-leads a project funded by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on AI-driven prediction of indoor environmental conditions and occupant health parameters, and has experience in building physics simulations, environmental measurements, and AI model development and deployment.

[1] Pei, G.*, Azimi, P., Keshavarz, Z., Vallarino, J., Kessler, W., Park, S., ... & Allen, J. G. (2026). Levels and Sources of Airborne Volatile Organic Compounds in Fifty Homes Following the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires. ACS ES&T Air, 3(6), 1552-1563.

[2] Park, S., Pei, G., Mistrick, R., & Rim, D.* (2025). CFD evaluation of far-UVC and air cleaning technologies in classrooms without mechanical ventilation. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 497, 139723.

[3] Allen, J. G.*, Azimi, P., Pei, G., Feguson, L., Burghardt, L., & Nadeau, K. (2025). Post-fire soil hazards: Recommendations for updated soil testing protocols and clearance thresholds. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 35, 883–887.

[4] Pei, G.*, Buonocore, J. J., Salimifard, P., Sousa, B., Ferguson, L., & Allen, J. G. (2025). Assessing the climate and health impacts of energy consumption in European Union countries. Environmental Research Letters, 20(6), 064027.

[5] Pei, G.*, Azimi, P., Rim, D., & Allen, J. G. (2024). A CFD study on the effect of portable air cleaner placement on airborne infection control in a classroom. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, 26, 1476–1488.

[6] Pei, G.*, Freihaut, J. D., & Rim, D. (2023). Long-term application of low-cost sensors for monitoring indoor air quality and particle dynamics in a commercial building. Journal of Building Engineering, 79, 107774.

[7] Pei, G., Xuan, Y., Morrison, G., & Rim, D.* (2022). Understanding ozone transport and deposition within indoor surface boundary layers. Environmental Science & Technology, 56(12), 7820–7829.

[8] Pei, G., Taylor, M., & Rim, D.* (2021). Human exposure to respiratory aerosols in a ventilated room: Effects of ventilation condition, emission mode, and social distancing. Sustainable Cities and Society, 73, 103090.

[9] Pei, G., & Rim, D.* (2021). Quality control of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of ozone reaction with human surface: Effects of mesh size and turbulence model. Building and Environment, 189, 107513.

[10] Pei, G., Rim, D.*, Schiavon, S., & Vannucci, M. (2019). Effect of sensor position on the performance of CO2-based demand controlled ventilation. Energy and Buildings, 202, 109358.

[11] Poerschke, U.*, Rim, D., Pei, G., & Mirhosseini, H. (2019). The ‘Air-Wall’: Re-evaluating a mid-twentieth century four-sided double-skin façade. Technology | Architecture + Design, 3(2), 200–210.

2024, Featured Cover Article, Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, Issue 9.
2022, Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Pennsylvania State University.
2021, Gordon D. Kissinger Graduate Research Fellowship, Pennsylvania State University.
2021, Borda Scholarly Excellence Graduate Scholarship, Pennsylvania State University.
2021, Marlene & Joseph Borda Graduate Fellowship, Pennsylvania State University.
2020, Best Paper Honorable Mention, ASHRAE Winter Conference.
2019, ASHRAE Graduate Student Grant-In-Aid.
2018, Graduate Scholarship Excellence in Engineering, Pennsylvania State University.
2016, Finalist, CAR-ASHRAE Student Design Competition.
2016, Outstanding Design Award, Midea HVAC Design Competition.