Wednesday, November 16, 2022

UNSW researchers among the most influential in the world

 

UNSW ranks in the world’s top 50 universities on the latest Clarivate list of Highly Cited Researchers.

More than 30 UNSW academics are among the world’s most influential in their fields, according to the annual Highly Cited Researchers list from Clarivate. With 34 researchers included, UNSW is ranked in third place in Australia and equal-26th among global universities.

Professor Nicholas Fisk, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research & Enterprise, congratulated the UNSW researchers on making the prestigious list.“The researchers included on the list are at the top of their field or fields and demonstrate significant research influence on key global issues like clinical medicine, renewable energy and climate change,” Prof. Fisk said. “The diversity of research represented is a testament to the quality, breadth and depth of expertise within our academic community. It is an exceptional achievement to see two of our Scientia Professors again included in two fields, with Liming Dai again listed in both Chemistry and Materials Science, and Louisa Degenhardt in both Clinical Medicine and Psychiatry/Psychology.”

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Super cool building materials prove powerful arsenal against climate change


New building materials that reduce urban temperatures, and counteract the effects of climate change, will be produced in a research partnership between UNSW Sydney and the University of Sydney.

The so-called super cool roofs, pavements and coatings for buildings reflect rather than absorb solar energy. They can reduce peak temperatures in our cities by up to four degrees, enough to save lives, says Scientia Professor Mattheos (Mat) Santamouris.

“One of the major problems in the built environment is urban overheating, or regional climatic change,” the Anita Lawrence Professor of High-Performance Architecture says. “As our cities heat up, heat-related morbidity and mortality rise.”

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Social housing temperatures in NSW exceed health and safety limits: study

Many low-income households can endure temperatures in their homes close to 40°C during summer and as little as 5°C during winter.


Many residents in social housing in New South Wales can experience alarming levels of winter underheating and summer overheating in their homes that do not meet standards for comfort and health, according to UNSW Sydney-led research funded by the Department of Planning and Environment and CRC for Low Carbon Living.

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Recent Progress on Urban Heat Mitigation Technologies (Webinar)

Regional climate change in cities is the most documented phenomenon of climate change. Higher urban temperatures are documented experimentally for more than 450 major cities in the world. Numerous investigations demonstrate that the mean magnitude of the temperature increase may exceed 4-6 C, while at the peak it may exceed 10 C. The serious increase of the frequency and the strength of heat waves creates strong synergies between the global and regional climate change and intensify the magnitude of the overheating Urban overheating causes a serious impact both