“The best way to predict the future is to (virtually) create it.”

Jan Hensen is emeritus Full Professor and was Chair of building performance in the Department of the Built Environment, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). His research and teaching focus on computational modeling and simulation for optimizing design and operation of high-performance buildings in terms of energy use and indoor environmental quality. Jan considers Computational Simulation to be one of the most powerful engineering tools in our world today. Both the power and complexity of building performance modeling and simulation arise from its use of many underlying theories from many different disciplines, including physics, mathematics, human behavioral, environmental and computational sciences, as well as building, mechanical and electrical engineering.

Although the technology has advanced tremendously over the past four decades, many theoretical and practical challenges still need to be overcome before the full potential of building performance simulation can be realized. One of the main challenges is how to use this technology more efficient and effective in high performance building design and operation. Jan’s research addresses this by expanding the modeling and simulation scope to allow for multi-scale and multi-physics problems, incorporating optimization under uncertainty approaches and reducing the energy performance gap (prediction vs. real).

Jan Hensen obtained his MSc and PhD in Building Science from the TU/e. In addition to his work at TU/e, he is a Full Professor in environmental engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Czech Technical University, Prague. He is the scientific director of the Smart Buildings and Cities post-master program and participates in many international research projects. He is on the scientific advisory board of several international energy institutions, external examiner at 15 international universities, reviewer and editorial board member of 18 international peer reviewed scientific journals and reviewer of national and international research projects.  

Jan is a former president and Fellow of the International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA), Fellow of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Fellow of the Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning Associations (REHVA) and has received several other national and international scientific and practice awards. He has been or is advisor of about 40 PhD students and 150 final year MSc students. He has authored or co-authored 14 books or chapter in books, over 120 scientific journal papers, more than 350 academic conference contributions and over 140 professional magazine articles.