About The Centre
The mission of the Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies (CZEBS) is to reduce the environmental impact of buildings while enhancing their safety and comfort.
CZEBS is a university-recognized research unit, which accomplishes its mission by enriching the learning and research experience of students and by assisting industry in implementing research results and innovations.
Director of CZEBS
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Andreas K Athienitis
- Professor, Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering
Status: Director, Concordia Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies (EV 15.101)Research areas: Solar Energy Engineering, Energy Efficiency, Renewable energy, energy efficiency. Integrated photovoltaics/solar energy utilization systems, Modeling, optimization and control of building thermal systems, Heating ventilation air-conditioning (HVAC), Numerical simulation of heat transfer, Thermal performance of the building envelope,
Associate Director of CZEBS
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Liangzhu (Leon) Wang
- Professor, Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering
Research areas: Building Environment, Forecasting/Hybrid building simulations using weather forecasting models, Building airflow and thermal management, Real-time building simulations
- Facilitate collaborative research aimed at widespread adoption of optimized net-zero energy building (NZEB) design and operation concepts in key regions of Canada by 2030. Consolidate Concordia’s leadership in the area of design and operation of high performance buildings.
- Provide strategic and technical input to national policy on the built environment.
- Advance the building engineering discipline and related areas across Canada to contribute in training the highly trained personnel that will contribute to a transformation of the building industry and our built environment towards a sustainable future. Assist young researchers to contribute to this transformation and build expertise in buildings and energy.
- Develop and preserve unique facilities for cutting edge research.
- Assist industry in introducing new technologies in high performance buildings.
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee will consist of the founding members for the first five years. It will:
- Assist the director with his/her mandate.
- Review and approve the yearly budget prepared and proposed by the Director.
Advisory Board
An Advisory Board may be established to advance the goal and objectives of the Centre with industry, governments, and other institutions.
The Director: Dr. Athienitis will act as the founding Director for the first 5 years to correspond with the tenure of the SNEBRN grant. Further reappointments are made by the Dean (VPRGS) upon the recommendation of the executive of the CZEBS in consultation with members of the Centre. Key characteristics of the candidate will be his/her track record in research, attracting of funds from government and industry, and dedication to the goal and objectives of the Centre. The Director will serve typically for a maximum of two terms. The Director may appoint an Associate Director in consultation with the Executive committee.
The Centre was initiated primarily by the Concordia group of researchers collaborating within the framework of the NSERC Smart Net-zero Energy Buildings Strategic Research Network (SNEBRN) funded by NSERC for 2011-2016 by $5M from NSERC and nearly $2M from partners.
The SNEBRN network is Canada's leading research initiative in the area of Energy and Buildings. SNEBRN continues and expands the work of the NSERC Solar Buildings Research Network (SBRN; 2005-2010), both initiatives being led by Concordia with Dr. Athienitis as Scientific Director. This group of researchers started off their collaboration in the historic Centre for Building Studies (CBS) that led to the establishment of the unique Building Engineering programs at Concordia and significant contributions to building research.
The CZEBS derives from the Centre for Building studies (CBS) established in 1976 and from its accomplishments over the subsequent decades under the stewardship of its Founding Director and his colleagues including the establishment of the Building Engineering discipline in Canada, the development of unique facilities, and the development of professors and researchers of world renown, and in the last decade with the establishment of the SBRN (2005-2010) and its continuing network – SNEBRN (2011-2016).
These two NSERC Networks were funded under a highly competitive process, an international review and a site visit, in which we were judged to be one of the leading groups in the world. The CZEBS builds on this success and is structured to address in the next decades issues of national and global dimensions involving buildings and energy.
For more information, view or download this presentation on CZEBS (in PDF, 5 MB).