Associate Professor Richard de Dear
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Position: | Associate Professor |
| Office: | E7A 621 | |
| Telephone: | +612 9850 7582 | |
| Fax: | +612 9850 8420 | |
| Email: | richard.dedear@mq.edu.au |
I obtained my PhD from the University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia under the supervision of Professor Andris Auliciems in 1985. Between 1985 and 1987 I worked as a post-doc with Professor PO Fanger at the Technical University of Denmark in Copenhagen. From 1987 until 1991 I taught in the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore. I have been on the teaching faculty here at Sydney's Macquarie University since 1991. Apart from my full-time appointment at Macquarie I also hold an Adjunct Professorship at the School of Architecture and Building, Deakin University, Geelong (since 2001).
Other Activities
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I regularly act as a consultant or expert witness in matters relating to the human thermal environment. Recent clients include:
Bickham Coal: In 2004 I provided quality assurance services on the atmospheric enviornment component of an environmental impact assessment for a new coal mine proposed in the Upper Hunter Valley. Air International: In 2002 I conducted a one-day short course in thermal comfort for about 20 engineers from Australia's largest automobile air conditioning manufacturer.
Disney Imagineering: In 2003 I conducted a biometeorological analysis of the microclimates in theme park queueing areas. Sites included Orlando Florida, Annaheim California and Hong Kong. My analysis presented thermal comfort design guidelines for the engineering of semi-outdoor spaces in the client's theme parks.
Deakin University: I designed and manufactured two mobile indoor climate analysers for the client's Mobile Architecture and Built Environment Laboratory (MABEL) in 2003.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service in a matter pertaining to heat stress assessment and management at Uluru- Kata Tjutu National Park (Ayers Rock and the Olgas). I wrote two reports and undertook one on-site day of field measurements in January 1999. The matter was brought by the Tourism Council of Australia Ltd to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Hungry Jacks Pty Ltd: I provided technical advice and expert witness services in the areas of human thermal comfort, stress and indoor climatic measurement to a national chain of burger outlets. The work was in connection with litigation between Burger King (USA) and Hungry Jacks (Australia) in 1998.
Airservices Australia: The matter concerned cold stress in relation to passengers on a small aircraft forced to ditch in Lake George in 1996. The subjects were partially immersed in water at 5degC and I provided expert advice on cold stress for the respondent in 2000.
The Built Environment Unit of the Queensland Government's Department of Administrative Services. Preparation of design guidelines for indoor climate in air-conditioned and naturally ventilated premises throughout the Queensland public sector.
Lincolne Scott Australia Pty Ltd (Consulting Engineers): The project involved thermal comfort assessments (modelling and measurement) of a prototype task air-conditioning and environmental systems to be installed in a currency trading room within Chifley Towers, Sydney Australia.
Consultancies of this type are administered on my behalf by Macquarie Research Limted (MRL), the commercial research arm of Macquarie University. - I chaired the Local and International Organising Committees for the 15th International Congress of Biometeorology and the International Conference on Urban Climatolgy which was hosted in Sydney in November 1999. The combined event attracted 320 delegates from 52 countries. Sponsors included the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Health Organization (WHO) amongst others. Copies of the Proceedings with over 300 full papers on CD-ROM may be obtained by completing this order form, then faxing it to me in Sydney (the form requires Acrobat Reader®, software that may be downloaded for free from here). I recently co-edited (with Professors Tim Oke, Jetse Kalma and Andris Auliciems) a book of selected papers from ICB-ICUC'99 entitled Biometeorology and Urban Climatology at the Turn of the Millennium, published by the World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, August 2000 (ISBN 92-63-01026-9). 674 pp.
- I am currently a voting member of ASHRAE's Technical Committee 2.1 - Physiology and Human Environment
- From 1999 through 2002 I was elected to the Executive Board of the International Society of Biometeorology.
- I am Field Editor (Built Environments) for the International Journal of Biometeorology. I also serve on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Human Environmental System and I'm a Review Editor for Climate Research.
- I am a referee for papers submitted to the following journals: International Journal of Climatology, Transactions of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Boundary-Layer Meteorology, Energy and Buildings, Building and Environment, International Journal of Wildland Fire, Indoor Air, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Australian Meteorological Magazine, Architectural Science Review, and New Zealand Geographer.
- In 1999 I received the Crosby Field Award, ASHRAE's highest award for a technical paper (co-authored with Gail Schiller Brager) entitled "Developing an adaptive model of thermal comfort and preference" which appeared in ASHRAE Transactions., V.104(1a), pp.145-167. This research project also won the Environmental Design and Research Association (EDRA) and "Places" Research Awards Competition in 1999.
- I am the Secretary of an ISB Commission to develop a Universal Thermal Climate Index. This International Commission was one of the major outcomes from the recent Internet Workshop on Windchill, hosted by Environment Canada (April 3-7, 2000).
- I was the recipient of ASHRAE's 1993 RG Nevins Award for "contributions to the area of man's response to the environment."