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Visiting Professors' Scheme
Visiting Professors in Building Engineering Physics
This industrially co-funded
scheme came about through the need for the UK to
mitigate its carbon emissions in the built
environment. Buildings account for some 45% of
carbon emissions and therefore if the UK is to have
any chance of meeting its obligations under the 2008
Climate Change Act, it must address the energy
emissions associated with buildings. In addition,
the regulatory requirement for zero carbon new build
by 2020, further emphasised the need to educate
engineers and others looking to establish a career
in the construction industry in the principles of
building engineering physics, the discipline of
managing the thermal and environmental
characteristics of buildings to achieve performance
criteria without necessarily relying on energy
consuming building services installations.
The scheme began in 2006, when
the Academy established a consortium of
organisations who shared this vision to fund three
pilot Visiting Professor posts at the universities
of Bristol, Cambridge and Sheffield. In 2008 a
further post came into existence at Bath. The end of
the pilot posts coincided with the publication of
the report Engineering a low carbon built
environment – the discipline of Building Engineering
Physics, which had a major impact not only within
the profession, but also in policy making circles
and the general public. This gave added impetus to
the Academy to continue with this initiative and a
template for the teaching of Building Engineering
Physics was created.
The second phase of the scheme
started in 2011. Most significantly the Chartered
Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE)
joined the consortium and co-funded with the Academy
two addition Visiting Professor posts which were
tenured at Loughborough University and UCL. In
addition the consortium funded a follow up report to
make the case for investment in building engineering
physics university centres of excellence. This
report was added to the capacity and skills agenda
of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills
Low Carbon Construction Action Plan published in
June 2011 and is due for publication in May 2012.
The Academy would like to
acknowledge the financial support and guidance of
the following organisations in establishing this
scheme:
Scheme manager: Dr Mark Bambury
[E-mail Dr Mark Bambury]
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