The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is delighted to announce that Ms Junran Yang, an alumna of the Master of Engineering in Building Services Engineering programme and former student of Ir Professor Niu Jianlei, has received the Best Poster Award at Indoor Air 2026, one of the world's premier conferences on indoor air quality and healthy built environments.
Indoor Air 2026 was held in Singapore from 14–18 June 2026 and brought together more than 900 scientists, engineers and policymakers from over 40 countries. Convened by the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ) and organised by the Singapore Green Building Council together with the National University of Singapore, the conference serves as a leading global platform for advancing research and innovation in indoor environmental quality.
The award-winning poster, entitled “Perceptual Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Endurance in Built Environments: Defining the Concepts and Directions for Future Research”, was co-authored by Ms Yang, Prof. Hilde Breesch, Prof. Douaa Al-Assaad, Prof. Mariya Bivolarova and Prof. Pawel Wargocki. The work introduces the concept of Perceptual IAQ Endurance, a novel framework describing occupants' ability to tolerate and adapt to indoor air quality stressors over time.
The proposed framework aims to advance the understanding of human responses to environmental challenges and their implications for building design and operation. By integrating concepts such as subjective IAQ resilience and environmental adaptation, the work contributes to the development of healthier, more sustainable and more resilient indoor environments.
Ms Yang is currently pursuing her PhD at KU Leuven, Belgium, where her research focuses on human perception and resilience in indoor environments, particularly under heat and air pollution exposure.
This achievement represents meaningful international recognition of Ms Yang's research and reflects the strong academic foundation she developed during her studies at PolyU. BEEE congratulates Ms Yang on this well-deserved honour and wishes her continued success in her future research endeavours.
