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Dr Mahsan Sadeghi

Architectural Scientist & CSIRO Early Research Career Fellow

https://people.csiro.au/s/m/mahsan-sadeghi

Biography

Dr Mahsan Sadeghi is a CERC research fellow in Energy Business Unit. She joined Australia’s national science agency in 2021, when she was awarded a CSIRO Early Research Career (CERC) fellowship. Mahsan also carries the title of Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the university of Sydney's School of Architecture, Design, and Planning.

Dr Sadeghi’s research focuses on residential overheating and occupant thermal comfort. Overheating in residential buildings is becoming an increasingly common problem in Australia; during the summer months temperatures can soar to dangerous levels in people’s homes. This can lead to discomfort, health problems, and in extreme events it can contribute to mortality. Dr Sadeghi’s current research into residential overheating aims to inform a climate sensitive model for a future Australian overheating standard.

With a background in architecture, Dr Sadeghi received her PhD. degree from The University of Sydney's School of Architecture, Design, and Planning for a thesis examining the potential for advanced ventilation design strategies to enhance residential thermal comfort.

Prior to joining CSIRO, Mahsan was awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) fellowship through the Centre for Air pollution, energy, and health Research (CAR). During that fellowship Mahsan held conjoint postdoctoral appointments with UNSW School of Built Environment (2020-21) and The University of Sydney's Indoor Environmental Quality Laboratory (2019-20). Mahsan’s research was an inter-disciplinary project on healthy built environment, focusing on greening infrastructures (such as green roof and urban trees) and their impacts on urban overheating, energy demand, and associated health benefits.

Dr Sadeghi's other project was funded by NSW Department of Planning, Industry, and Environment (DPIE) in conjunction with NSW Health. Here, she studied the impact of adaptation strategies on mitigating urban heat, energy consumption, and their impact on population mortality.

Prior to her postdoctoral studies, Mahsan was commissioned by the Government of Western Australia in 2019 to develop a rational and evidence-based “Government Housing Air-Conditioning Policy” (WA Department of Communities), based on an analytical methodology developed in her PhD thesis (Sadeghi et al., 2018).

Academic Qualifications

  • 2018

    PhD Degree – Researching the potential for advanced ventilation design strategies to enhance residential thermal comfort.
    The University of Sydney

Achievements and Awards

  • 2019-2021

    National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship
    Centre for Air pollution, energy, and health Research (CAR)

  • 2019-2020

    Climate Change, Human Health, and Social Impacts Node Grant
    NSW Department of Planning, Industry, and Environment (DPIE)

  • 2019-2020

    National Postdoctoral Training Grant
    Centre for Air pollution, energy, and health Research (CAR)

  • 2019-2020

    Government Housing Air-conditioning New Policy – Commissioned Research Grant
    Government of Western Australia, Department of Communities

Current Roles

  • CSIRO Early Research Career (CERC) Fellow
    Building overheating; Occupant thermal comfort

  • Honorary Senior Research Fellow, School of Architecture, Design, and Planning, The university of Sydney
    PhD student co-supervisory | Thermal comfort in buildings

  • Affiliate Centre for Safe Air
    NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence

Grants

  • 2023-Date

    Funded by School of Medicine and Psychology, Australian National University. “Investigating relationship between indoor environment and sleep during summertime heat stress in Australia”.

  • 2019-2020

    Industry grant, Orosi Construction PTY LTD. “Optimised Zero Energy Residences in Sydney”.

  • 2018-2019

    Funded by CRC for Low Carbon Living in partnership with industry. “Indoor Environmental Quality and Natural Ventilation in St Spridon College”.

  • 2023-Date

    Funded Funded by School of Medicine and Psychology, Australian National University. “Investigating relationship between indoor environment and sleep during summertime heat stress in Australia”.

  • 2017-2018

    Funded by Sydney Water, and CRC for Low Carbon Living. “Application of Urban Heat Island Mitigation Technologies in west Sydney”.

  • 2015-2016

    Funded by industry in partnership with Centre for Infrastructure Engineering (CIE), Western Sydney University. “Energy Efficient Design of Wind Towers for Australian Residential Context”

Other highlights

  • 2023-2023

    Keynote speech – Darwin Living Lab Symposium 2023. "Health impacts of greening strategies to cool urban environments".

  • 2020-2021

    Co-authored a position paper in response to Parliament of NSW Inquiry on “Submission on the New South Wales Protection of the Environment Operations Amendment (Clean Air) Bill 2021”. Jalaludin, B., Zosky, G., Cowie, C., Workman, A., Sadeghi, M., Morgan, G. (2021).

  • 2019-2020

    Lead-authored a response and attended a public hearing in Parliament of NSW on “Electric buses in regional and metropolitan public transport network in NSW”, on behalf of Centre for Air pollution, energy and health Research (CAR). Sadeghi, M., Porta Cubas, A., Cole-Hunter, T., (2020). https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/ladocs/submissions/66977/Submission%20-%2013.pdf

  • 2019-2020

    Developed a new policy for Government of Western Australia, Department of Communities on “Government Housing Air-Conditioning Policy”. Translation of research into policy.

Professional Experiences

  • 2020-2021

    Postdoctoral Research Fellow
    The University of New South Wales

  • 2019-2020

    Postdoctoral Research Fellow
    The University of Sydney

  • 2018-2019

    Architect Consultant
    Renson Ventilation NV (Head quarter in Belgium)