Ardeshir Mahdavi

Ardeshir Mahdavi has a Diplom-Ingenieur degree, a Ph.D., and a Post-Doc (Habilitation) degree from TU Wien, Austria.

Prior to his current affiliation at TU Graz, Professor Mahdavi was the Director of the Department of Building Physics and Building Ecology and the Chair of Graduate Studies in Building Science and Technology at TU Wien. He acted also as the Chair of the Institute of Architectural Sciences at TU Wien. Before returning to Austria, Professor Mahdavi was a Full Tenured Professor of Building Physics at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Pittsburgh, USA. He has supervised more than 65 Ph.D. students and more than 180 Master of Science students.

Mahdavi has conducted scientific research in multiple fields, including building engineering physics (thermal, visual, and acoustical performance of built environments, energy-efficient building design and operation), Building Performance Simulation, Building Controls and Diagnostics, Building Ecology, and Human Ecology. Specific scientific contributions of Mahdavi include the development of a comprehensive ontology for monitored building data, the conception and implementation of an exclusively simulation-powered predictive building systems control methodology, analysis and modeling of the urban microclimate, including the urban heat island phenomena, development and evaluation of sky radiance and luminance distribution models, work on probabilistic room acoustics modes and the development and evaluations of models of building users' presence and behavior in buildings. Mahdavi tends to work on multiple research questions simultaneously. One essential line of inquiry he has pursued over the last 15 years addresses the inadequacy of models of buildings’ inhabitants, their presence, their requirements, their perception and evaluation processes, and their behavior and actions. Another area of concentration concerns the challenges of modelling the urban microclimate and urban-level energy transfer processes. He has been also working on the ontological aspects of building modelling.

Mahdavi is a fellow of International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA). In the past, he has acted as a member of ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, Inc.), IESNA (Illuminating Engineering Society of North America), CIB (Conseil International Du Batiment Pour La Recherch L'Etude Et La Documentation), ÖNORM (Austrian Institute for Standardization), and SHE (The North-America Society for Human Ecology).

Ardeshir Mahdavi is the author or co-author of over 250 journal papers as well as over 650 conference papers. He is also a frequent Keynote speaker at different international conferences such as IBPSA, CLIMA, PLEA, CIB, BAUSIM, BSA, CAAD Futures, eCAADe and ECPPM.