At Stanford University, Yi Cui is the director of the Precourt Institute for Energy, co-director of the StorageX Initiative, professor of materials science and engineering. A cleantech pioneer and entrepreneur, Cui earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1998 from the University of Science & Technology of China and his PhD in chemistry from Harvard University in 2002. He was a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from 2002 to 2005 before joining the Stanford faculty. Cui manages a large Stanford research group, from which alumni have succeeded in academia and businesses. He has founded five companies to commercialize the energy and environment technologies from his lab: Amprius, 4C Air, EEnotech, EnerVenue and LifeLab Design Inc.

Dr. Tianzhen Hong is Senior Scientist and Deputy Head of Building Technologies Department of LBNL. His research employs interdisciplinary approaches with data, analytics, modeling, and simulation to explore technologies and human factors supporting the planning, design and operation of energy efficient, demand flexible, and climate resilient buildings at multi-scale. He is an IBPSA Fellow, ASHRAE Fellow, and Highly Cited Researcher 2021.

Dr. Ronnen Levinson is a Staff Scientist and Leader of the Heat Island Group at LBNL. Within his research portfolio he develops cool roof, wall, and pavement materials; improves methods for the measurement of solar reflectance; and quantifies the energy and environmental benefits of cool surfaces. He serves on the boards and technical committees of the Cool Roof Rating Council and the Global Cool Cities Alliance, and advises policymakers, code officials, utilities, and building rating programs about cool surfaces. He has over 100 publications and received a 2016 R&D 100 Award for invention of the Cool Roof Time Machine.

Alex Morrison is a Resilience GIS Analyst with the San Francisco Office of Resilience and Capital Planning (SF ORCP) where he provides support for various city-wide climate mitigation/adaptation actions as well as supporting seismic retrofit program. He co-project manages the Heat and Air Quality Resilience (HAQR) project in partnership with the Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Department of Emergency Management (DEM).

Tom Phillips consults and advises on healthy, sustainable buildings, and lives in Davis, California. He has focused on climate resilience, adaptation, and mitigation (CRAM) in buildings and communities since 2011, especially on extreme heat, health, and productivity. Current projects include assessing and preventing overheating of buildings under current and future climates and power outages, and reducing outdoor pollutant intrusion (ROCIS.org). Before that, Tom worked for over three decades on IEQ, exposure assessment, and healthy green buildings at California’s air pollution and energy agencies, at the intersection of research, policy, education, and legislation. He also volunteers to support local bicycling growth.

Bruce Riordan directs the Berkeley Climate Change Network. BCCN brings together 250+ researchers and stakeholders who are working on climate solutions at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Their goals are to increase funding for climate research, facilitate inter-disciplinary research projects and develop stronger ties between campus/Lab experts and off-campus climate leaders from government, NGOs and the private sector.

Nihar Shah is Presidential Director of the Global Cooling Efficiency Program at Berkeley Lab. He has provided technical support for the negotiations of the Montreal Protocol since 2014, including the Kigali Amendment and integration of energy efficiency into the refrigerant transition as well as technical support for cooling equipment energy efficiency standards in China, India, Latin America, ASEAN and Southern and Eastern Africa. The Global Cooling Efficiency Program is currently focused on reducing the costs of highly efficient cooling equipment using low-GWP refrigerants.

Max Wei is a Research Scientist in the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems Department at LBNL. He is currently leading two research projects on extreme heat resilience and climate equity for the Central Valley of California. He has led technoeconomic modeling and policy analysis of California decarbonization pathways and emerging technologies such as air conditioning with low GWP refrigerants. Max has extensive experience in cross-sector energy analysis and industry experience in advanced manufacturing and technology development.

Professor Junqiao Wu obtained a PhD degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and did postdoctoral research at Harvard University. His honors include the 29th Ross N. Tucker Memorial Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the White House, and elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). He is currently a professor of materials science and engineering at UC Berkeley, and holds a joint appointment at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Wu group explores physics and applications of electronic materials. Prof. Wu has published over 200 widely cited papers in these fields.

Hui Zhang is a professional researcher at the Center for the Built Environment at UC Berkeley. Her work focuses on human thermophysiology and thermal comfort to support the development of energy-efficient and individually controlled heating and cooling systems for buildings. Dr. Zhang has developed a body-part-specific model of human comfort for the evaluation of complex thermal environments and holds several patents for personal comfort systems. She has run many laboratory and field studies evaluating a wide range of topics ranging from fundamental physiology to the comfort and energy effectiveness of innovative building practices.

Dr. Zhang holds a PhD in building science from the Department of Architecture at UC Berkeley (2003) and a M.S in Architecture (1986) and B.A. in Engineering (1983) from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. She received the ASHRAE Ralph Nevins Physiology and Human Environment Award for her PhD dissertation study, "Local Thermal Comfort in Asymmetrical and Transient Environments."