Researcher

Dr Gloria Pignatta

My Expertise

Building Energy Efficiency, Energy poverty, Climate Change and Urban Heat Island adaptation and mitigation, Extreme climatic events, Sustainable Buildings and Cities, Indoor/Outdoor thermal comfort, Net Zero Energy Buildings and Settlement, Optical property optimization for buildings' envelope and urban surfaces materials, Cool materials, Radiative cooling, Smart monitoring, Decision-Making Theories, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Keywords

cooling

building energy management

urban heat island

life cycle assessment

microclimate

challenges and mitigation strategies

phase change material

thermal comfort

climate change

energy policy

urban and built environment research

construction & building technology

Fields of Research (FoR)

Architectural Science and Technology (incl. Acoustics, Lighting, Structure and Ecologically Sustainable Design), Built Environment and Design, Urban Analysis and Development, Environmental Monitoring, Landscape Planning, Building, Architecture and Urban Environment not elsewhere c, Other Architecture, Urban Environment and Building, Climate Change Processes, Architectural Heritage and Conservation, Renewable Power and Energy Systems Engineering (excl. Solar Cells)

SEO tags

Residential Energy Conservation and Efficiency

Energy Conservation and Efficiency

Expanding Knowledge in Built Environment and Design

Construction Materials Performance and Processes

Environmental Lifecycle Assessment

Health Status (e.g. Indicators of Well-Being)

Biography

Dr. Gloria PIGNATTA is Scientia Lecturer and City Futures Research Centre (CFRC) Fellow (2021-2024) at the School of Built Environment (BE) - Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture (ADA), UNSW Sydney, focusing on building energy efficiency and sustainability in the built environment. She is one of the members of the High Performance Architecture Research Cluster and of the History and Theory of the Built Environment Research Cluster at the...view more

Dr. Gloria PIGNATTA is Scientia Lecturer and City Futures Research Centre (CFRC) Fellow (2021-2024) at the School of Built Environment (BE) - Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture (ADA), UNSW Sydney, focusing on building energy efficiency and sustainability in the built environment. She is one of the members of the High Performance Architecture Research Cluster and of the History and Theory of the Built Environment Research Cluster at the School of BE. She is a Civil Engineer with a Ph.D. in Energy Engineering from the University of Perugia, Italy. In 2017, she was Postdoctoral Associate and Building and Construction expert at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), in Singapore. In 2016, she was Postdoctoral Fellow at the Inter-University Research Center on Pollution and Environment “Mauro Felli" (CIRIAF), University of Perugia, Italy. Her research collaboration network touches different countries: Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Denmark, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Singapore, Sweden, USA, Canada, India, and Australia.

My Grants

Scheme: National Housing Research Program - Research projects
Funding agency: AHURI - National Housing Research Program - Research projects
Grant name: Sustainable Apartment Housing: new built and retrofit
UNSW Grant number: RG211210
Start date: 2021
Funder reference number: 21/PRO/71282

Scheme: MMFI Seed Grant
Funding agency: Materials and Manufacturing Future Institute (MMFI)
Grant name: Development of novel and sustainable geopolymer materials for Building Elements
UNSW Grant number: PS59631
Start date: 2020
Funder reference number: N/A

Scheme: Discovery Projects 2020
Funding agency: Australian Research Council (ARC)
Grant name: Scalable daytime radiative cooling for buildings and the built environment
UNSW Grant number: N/A
Start date: 2020
Funder reference number: N/A

Scheme: INTERNATIONAL GRANT
Funding agency: EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Grant name: ERASMUS+ International Credit Mobility 2019-2022
UNSW Grant number: N/A
Start date: August 2019
Funder reference number: N/A

Scheme: N/A
Funding agency: Faculty of Built Environment
Grant name: ARC Development and Support Grant
UNSW Grant number: N/A
Start date: 15 August 2019
Funder reference number: N/A

Scheme: RESEARCH GRANTS
Funding agency: CRC FOR LOW CARBON LIVING LIMITED
Grant name: Rapid review - best practice techniques for urban cooling in Australia climate zones
UNSW Grant number: RG191660
Start date: 1 April 2019
Funder reference number: SP0020p6

Scheme: INTERNATIONAL CONTRACT
Funding agency: HCL CONSULTANTS LTD
Grant name: Technical assistance for minimum energy performance standards for buildings in the Indian ocean commission (ioc) member states
UNSW Grant number: RG190841
Start date: 11 January 2019
Funder reference number: 4907

Scheme: CONTRACT RESEARCH
Funding agency: NT DEPARTMENT OF TRADE, BUSINESS AND INNOVATION
Grant name: Darwin supervision, experiment and evaluation of the cooling performance of the shading and greenery mitigation structure and energy saving potential
UNSW Grant number: RG190681
Start date: 1 January 2019
Funder reference number: 18-1700

Scheme: RESEARCH GRANTS
Funding agency: CRC FOR LOW CARBON LIVING LIMITED
Grant name: preliminary design of a smart climatic road in Phillip str Parramatta
UNSW Grant number: RG183306
Start date: 1 November 2018
Funder reference number: SP0012U2

Scheme: LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONTRACT
Funding agency: CITY OF PARRAMATTA COUNCIL
Grant name: preliminary design of a smart climatic road in Phillip st Parramatta
UNSW Grant number: RG182620
Start date: 21 October 2018

Scheme: RESEARCH GRANTS
Funding agency: CRC FOR LOW CARBON LIVING LIMITED
Grant name: cpd-managing urban heat
UNSW Grant number: RG182141
Start date: 8 August 2018
Funder reference number: SP0023P2

My Qualifications

PhD (University of Perugia - CIRIAF), P.Eng., M.Eng. (University of Perugia), B.Eng. (University of Perugia)

AGSM Certificate in Executive Management and Development (CEMD) at UNSW Business School

AGSM Leading for High Performance at UNSW Business School

My Awards

- IC2UHI2016 Award: Award to Italy at the 4th International Conference on Countermeasures to Urban Heat Island in Singapore. In recognition of continuously conducting research and outreach in urban heat island related topics, “Outstanding UHI Group of Researchers Award”.

- IC2UHI2014 Award: Best paper award at the 3rd International Conference on Countermeasures to Urban Heat Island in Venice, Italy, for the paper “Experimental analysis and optimization of polyurethane waterproof liquid membrane for cool roof application” by A.L. Pisello, V.L. Castaldo, G. Pignatta, F. Cotana. Prize for the “Unique experimental approach for the UHI
countermeasures”.

- FULT Good Practice Award 2020: Good Practice Case Study Award for education excellence focusing on postgraduate learning and teaching remotely.

- "Learning and Teaching Award 2020 for COVID-19 Learning Design through Technology" awarded by UNSW Built Environment, 2020.

My Research Supervision

Supervision keywords

building energy management

building life cycle

building vulnerability

buildings

commercial buildings

clean energy future legislation

challenges and mitigation strategies

strategies and decision-making

thermal comfort

universal thermal comfort index

cooling

heating

cloud monitoring

Areas of supervision

Sustainable Buildings, Positive Energy Districts, Advanced materials and technologies for the building envelope, Building energy efficiency, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Urban Heat Island, Indoor/outdoor thermal comfort, Thermal-energy performance in buildings, Energy Poverty, Optimization of optical properties of building envelope material, cool materials, green infrastructures, Radiative cooling materials, Life Cycle Assessment, Solar-based pre-heating and pre-cooling of buildings.

Currently supervising

Best practice techniques for urban cooling in Australian climate zones
Technologies Impact on Sustainable Buildings
Precinct Information Modelling for Integrative Energy Planning
Energy Poverty in NSW. Characteristics, Impact, and Solutions
Investigation of Photovoltaic Solar Panel and Solar-Powered Absorption Cooling Systems as a Load Shifting Tool in the District Level using URBANopt
A Risk-Based LCA and LCEA of Net Zero Energy Buildings
Low cost, sustainable facade retrofitting solutions for improved thermal performance of poorly insulated social housing in Australia

Please include the following documents when contacting me for a supervision request:

Research proposal
CV
List of Publications
Transcripts
English test result for international applicants

I would suggest Ph.D. applicants complete the self-assessment through https://selfassessment.research.unsw.edu.au/ and send me the result at g.pignatta@unsw.edu.au.

I will then contact you if I believe it is feasible.

My Engagement

- Editorial Board member of Energy Nexus Journal (Elsevier)

- 2021 Associate member of AIA (Acoustic Italian Association)

- 2021-2024 Member of the IEA EBC Annex 83 “Positive Energy Districts”

- 2021-2024 Management Committee member of the EU COST Action "Positive Energy Districts"

- 2021 Chair of the Guidance and Outreach workgroup of Cool Building Solution (CBS) collaborative lead by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)

- 2021 Chair of the Early Career Academic Network Executive Committee (ECAN-EXEC) @UNSW

- 2021 Representative member of the FADA ECAN subcommittee @UNSW Arts, Design and Architecture

- 2020 Member of the Early Career Academic Network Executive Committee (ECAN-EXEC) @UNSW

- 2019 Representative member of the FBE ECAN subcommittee @UNSW Built Environment

- 2019/2020 International Development Coordinator (IDC) from the ADI Unit @UNSW Built Environment