Organization institution and committee

Empa is a research organization in the ETH domain which focuses on applied materials research and technology transfer to the industry. The Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles is a group of about 50 researchers and students working in the fields of medical textiles, adaptive membranes, heat and mass transfer, and body simulation systems.

We develop new materials and systems for better protection and increased performance of the human body, such as on adaptive and smart materials for improved human thermoregulation, personal cooling systems, as well as new sensors for body monitoring.

On the modelling side, we strive for a better understanding of the complex interactions between the human body, clothing systems and the environment through continuous development and improvement of a variety of physical and physiological models. This includes human thermoregulation models, realistic heat and mass transfer models in clothing systems that take fabric properties, clothing fit and realistic body posture into consideration, and global and local thermal sensation and thermal comfort models for indoor and outdoor applications.

This expertise in multiscale interactions in the body‐clothing‐environment system provides important inputs for other scientific disciplines, such as high performance apparel for medical, sports, occupational and military applications, as well as design and conditioning of spaces in transportation, buildings, and urban environments by adding the human factor at the required level of sophistication.

 

Organizing committee:

Agnes Psikuta
Simon Annaheim
Prof. René Rossi
Ann-Christin Vetsch

 

Scientific committee:

Mr. Richard Burke, Thermetrics LLC, USA
Dr. Manuel Gameiro da Silva, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Dr. Emiel A. den Hartog, North Carolina State University, USA
Prof. Jintu Fan, Cornell University, USA
Dr. Ralph F Goldman, Comfort Technology Inc., USA
Prof. George Havenith, Loughborough University, UK
Dr. Kalev Kuklane, Lund University, Sweden
Dr. Harriet Meinander, Tampere University of Technology, Finland
Dr. Håkan O Nilsson, WSP Environmental, Sweden
Prof. René M Rossi, Empa, Switzerland
Prof. Shin-ichi Tanabe, Waseda University, Japan
Dr. Faming Wang, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Prof. Wen’guo Weng, Tsinghua University, China


Contact information

For scientific organization:
Dr. Agnes Psikuta
Phone +41 58 765 76 73

For event organization:
Ann-Christin Vetsch
Phone +41 58 765 74 21