Dr. Guoqiang Zhang is a professor at Hunan University. He supervises PhD students from both Civil Engineering and Architecture. He is now the director of Center for Sustainable Built Environment of Hunan University, the director of the National Center for International Research Collaboration in Building Safety and Environment of Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and the deputy director of Key Lab of Building Safety and Energy Efficiency of Ministry of Education of China. He was also in the university administrative position of Vice Director of Department of Environmental Engineering, Vice Dean of College of Civil Engineering, and Executive Director of the Academy of Research of Hunan University from 1997 to 2012. In addition, he was invited as the adjunct professor of Concordia University, Canada, adjunct professor of University of Missouri at Columbia, USA and visiting professor of London South Bank University, UK.
Due to his contribution in Sustainable Built Environment Education, Research and Practice, Dr. Zhang received special government allowance from the State Council in China. He is also the winner of Ten-Thousand Talents Program of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, the New Century National Hundred, Thousand and Ten Thousand Talent Project of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China, the Creative Talent Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the National Excellent Young Faculty Award in Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education of China, the Excellent Graduate Student Tutor Award of Hunan Province, and the Excellent Researcher Award of Hunan Province.
He was the director of International Initiative of Sustainble Built Environment, a member of advisory and editorial board of Building and Environment, the chairman of five international conferences. He is also a member of HVAC committee and the deputy director of the simulation professional branch, the vice president of building energy and power committee of China, a member of Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences, the vice president of indoor environment and health committee of China, a standing member of Energy Service Committee of China Energy Conservation Association, a member of China Green Building Council, a member of Technical Committee of China Construction Industry Association, the expert of Intelligent Building Committee of China Association of Engineering Survey and Design, the vice president of Hunan Society of Refrigeration, the vice-chairman of Hunan Construction Technology and Building Energy Conservation Association, the executive director of Hunan Society of Civil Engineering and Architecture etc..
Created and led a university research center，Center for Sustianable Built Environment , a consulting and contract company, Hunan University Regal Energy Science and Technology Ltd. and a media company, Changsha Netsun Cultural Communication Co. Ltd. , forming a R&D team with more than 100 members, Dr. Zhang investigated and practiced the mechanism for realizing cross-disciplinary, industry-university-research, and international collaboration in Sustainable Built Environment. He made a valuable contribution towards sustainable education and science communication, Research, Social service and commercialization of scientific and technological achievements.
Basing on this，Dr. Zhang is now dedicated himself to study the systematic approach to assure the quality of buildings while utilizing new technologies in buildings in China.
Dr. Zhang has continuously worked for more than 20 years on sustainable education and science communication, and established a complete education system and promotion platform. Supported by an EU Asia-Link grant in 2005 entitled “A Multidisciplinary Approach to Curriculum Development in Sustainable Built Environment”, collaborating with Aalborg University in Denmark, Brunel University in UK, he acted as the chief editor to publish a series of textbooks on sustainable built environment, which were selected as National Planned Textbook and Top-quality Courses in Hunan Province. He initiated and taught 7 courses in sustainable built environment and supervised a number of Ph.D. and M.Sc. students, among which 21 Ph.D. and more than 110 M.Sc. students have already obtained their degrees. The papers published by these students were awarded 9 times. In 1998, He launched the first HVAC&R professional website in China. In 2001, he chaired the 4th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality, Ventilation and Energy Conservation in Buildings, held in Changsha, which was the first large scale international conference in this field in mainland China. In 2003, he was invited as the editor-in-Chief of Chinese Journal of Building Energy and Environment , sponsored by the Chinese Society of Architecture. In 2010, he initiated and organized the Forum on Renewable Energy Application in Buildings in Hunan Province. In 2013, he was funded by the Ministry of Finance and National Development and Reform Commission, with the project entitled “Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Evaluation and Promotion Platform”. Based on this project, in 2014, he and his team created the website of Energy Saving and Emission Reduction ,which includes there sub-websites regarding building, energy and environment: building.chinaeser.cn,energy.chinaeser.cn and environment.chinaeser.cn. He and his team also initiated China (Changsha) Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Fiscal Policy Comprehensive Demonstration Summit and Expo in 2015. Basing on eser-expo and also supported by the key conference fundings from Hunan Province and Changsha City, he and his team initiated China (Changsha) Housing Industrialization and Green Building Expo, which is a very successful event in 2016 and will take place annually in the future. He also published 3 popular science books in sustainble environment. In 2014 and 2016, he and his team organized the chief forum of Science and Technology Forum of Hunan Province. In 2016, the forum and exhibition organized by his team were funded by Chinese Association of Science and Technology, and also awarded top 10 exhibition brand in China.
With regards to research, he was the PI or China side PI of 4 international cooperation research projects, 8 national research projects and 1 major science and technology projects in Hunan Province. From 2000 to date, the fundings and contracts he worked as PI sums up to 70 million RMB. Based on his research, he has won 7 provincial level awards and 33 authorized Chinese patents. He is also responsible or participates in the writing of 9 national and provincial technical standards. He published more than 400 papers, including over 70 international journal papers, more than 110 international conference papers, more than 200 Chinese journal papers. These papers have been cited more than 3000 times. His main research areas are:
(1) Green building design method, energy conservation and indoor environment of buildings in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Climate Region based on natural ventilation. In this field, he undertook 4 national projects and participated in the IEA EBC Annex 62 as National representative of China, and also as leader of Subtask C of the Annex. He is now responsible for preparing the first national standard for natural ventilation design (standard of China Building Standardization Association), and taking part in an ISO standard in ventilation. In this field, more than 20 international journal papers have been published, 7 patents were authorized. He also received the second-class prize in the science and technology progress award of Hunan Province.
(2) The urban and district energy (cooling, heating and power )supply technology in Southern China, including the energy supply system in the CCHP, energy storage materials and systems, the optimization of energy transmission network, load forecasting and optimization, and energy system monitoring and control management. He undertook three national projects in this field, one major science and technology project in Hunan Province, and participated in the IEA ECES Annex 31. He published more than 20 international journal papers. Meanwhile, 7 patents were authorized. He also won the first-class prize in the scientific and technological progress award of Ministry of Education.
(3) Dr. Zhang is now also focusing on the research of prefabricated building and quality assurance in urbanization and building construction in China. In 2016，he initiated China Construction 4.0 concept which means, through international collaboration, to investigate and practice the mechanism to assure the quality of urbanization and building in China while promoting new technologies as green building， building energy conservation and smart building etc.
With regards to social services and commercialization of achievements, he and his team made creative contributions to provide technical support for the National Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Fiscal Policy Comprehensive Demonstration City Group Project of Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan, the National Renewable Energy Application in Buildings Demonstration City Project of Changsha, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan, Loudi and other cities, and the establishment of building energy monitoring systems for Hunan governmental buildings, large public buildings and for Hunan University campus buildings. The technical support mainly includes the projects’ application, the development of standards and guidelines during the stage of projects implementation. At the same time, combining with his research work, he carried out the consultant and industrial development of green building, building energy conservation and intelligent building area. Products like the green building design optimization software, district cooling/heating system and renewable energy system optimization and control systems, building and industry energy monitoring and control systems were developed. More than 80 green building and energy conservation consulting projects, over 100 energy retrofit demonstration projects with energy monitoring/allocating/ controlling technologies were completed, about 20 renewable energy hot water EMC systems and solar water supplying system were inplemented as well.