Leslie Norford is the George Macomber (1948) Professor in Construction Management in the Department of Architecture at MIT. His research focuses on reducing building energy use and associated resource consumption and carbon emissions and his teaching includes project-based efforts to improve schools in developing countries and promote the use of simulation-enhanced building design workflows. He has developed fault detection and optimal control strategies for HVAC equipment and conducted measurement campaigns and numerical analyses of building energy consumption in Russia, China, Pakistan, the UK and Norway. The ongoing research of his group in the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) includes measurements and models of urban microclimates, with a focus on identifying strategies to reduce the urban heat island effect and improve urban air quality. Working with mechanical and electrical engineering students at MIT, he is identifying how control of HVAC systems can help electric utilities mitigate the impact of power fluctuations associated with wind and PV systems through provision of such services as power reserves and frequency regulation.
