Dr. Ronita Bardhan is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Built Environment at the University of Cambridge and holds the office of Director of Research and Deputy Head of the Department of Architecture. Ronita leads the Cambridge Sustainable Design Group and has faculty roles (by courtesy) at Cambridge Public Health and the Cambridge Computer Laboratory. Ronita's research intersects the built environment, climate change, and health, focusing on data-driven strategies for precision prevention. Her seminal work on gender-inclusive climate adaptation in built environments is now shaping policies in the Global South. Ronita is ranked among the top 2% of scientists in her domain and was awarded the Top 50 Finalist Women in Engineering, UK 2024. She regularly advises policymakers on critical issues related to low-carbon transition and heat-health.
Biography
Dr Ronita Bardhan is an architectural engineer and urban studies educator, with a PhD in urban engineering. Bardhan leads the - Cambridge Sustainable Design Group (CSDG). Ronita's research is at the intersection of the built environment, climate change, and public health. Her research employs data-driven design strategies for precision prevention from health and energy burdens in the warming climate. She triangulates building physics, engineering, machine learning / AI and social science data to develop solutions for realising health and low-carbon energy potential in built environments. Bardhan has developed pioneer algorithm for identifying decarbonisation potential in UK buildings, climate heat stress & gender equity . Bardhan's work on climate, public health and social housing (Slum Rehabilitation housing in India, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Brazil) has informed policymakers and has received wide coverage in global news media like BBC, TIME, CNN, CBC, Wahington Post etc.
Research
Cambridge Sustainable Design Group (CSDG)
Dr Ronita Bardhan is Principle Investigator of Cambridge Sustainable Design Group .The vertebral research theme of CSDG is ‘Data-Driven Design Heuristics for Sustainable Built Environment'. The research is focused at the intersection of climate change (especially heat stress), built environment and public health . For details visit https://www.sustainabledesign.arct.cam.ac.uk/
Publications
Bardhan, R*., Debnath, R., and Mukherjee, B. (2024). Factor in gender to beat the heat in impoverished settlements, Nature, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02632-3
Sun, M., Bardhan, R*. (2024). Identifying Hard-to-Decarbonize houses from multi-source data in Cambridge, UK , Sustainable Cities and Society https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2023.105015
Debnath, R., Bardhan, R*., & Bell, M. L. (2023). Lethal heatwaves are challenging India’s sustainable development.PLOS Climate,2(4), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000156.
Dong,B., Liu, Y., Mu, W., Jiang,Z., Pandey,P., Hong,T., Olesen, B.,Lawrence,T., O’Neil, Z., Andrews, C., Azar, E., Bandurski,K., Bardhan, R., Bavaresco,M.,Berger,C., Burry,J., Carlucci,S., Chvatal,K., De Simone, M., Erba,S., Gao,N., Graham,L., Grassi,C., Jain,R.,Kumar,S., Kjærgaard,M., Korsavi, S., Langevin,J., Li, Z.,Lipczynska, A., Mahdavi, A., Malik, J., Marschall, M., Nagy,Z.,Neves, L., O’Brien, W., Pan, S., Park, JY., Pigliautile, I., Piselli, C., Pisello,A., Rafsanjani,H., Rupp,R., Salim, F., Schiavon, S., Schwee,J., Sonta,A., Touchie,M.,Wagner,A. Walsh, S., Wang,Z., Webber,D., Yan,D., Zangheri, P., Zhang,J., Zhou, X., Zhou, X., (2022). A Global Building Occupant Behavior Database. Nature Scientific Data, 9(1), 369. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01475-3
Bardhan, R*., Gupta, P., & Majumdar, A. (2022). GeoInFuse - A data-driven information fusion for intra-urban form classification in data-scarce heterogeneous cities. Cities, 103762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.103762
Lin, Y., Bardhan, R., Debnath, R., and Mukherjee, B. (2024). Are heatwaves more deadly for women? Significance Magazine, Royal Statistical Society, https://significancemagazine.com/
long-read-areheatwaves-more-deadly-for-women/
Bardhan, R*., Pan, J., Chen, S., Cho, T. Y. (2024). Breathing space in a compact city: Impacts of urban re-densification on Mumbai’s low-income housing environment. Habitat International, 149, 103098.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2024.103098
For an complete publication list visit Google Scholar profile.
Teaching and Supervisions
Undergraduate Teaching
- Part IB: Principles of Environmental Design
- Part II : Dissertation
Graduate Teaching
- MPhil in Architecture and Urban Studies
- MPhil in Architecture
- MPhil in Energy Technologies
- Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment (IDBE) - Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
For the MPhil in Architecture and Urban Studies [MAUS], MPhil in Architecture [MArch], and PhD:
- Co-Lecturer "Research Methods: Building Environmental Simulations and Data-driven design"
- Advanced Seminar "Managing Urban Change - Managing Informality"
- Advanced Seminar "Health and Wellbeing"
I supervise on average up to 1-2 PhD, 2 MAUS, 2 MArch students per cohort.
Potential PhD students
Looking for highly motivated and energetic individuals who are interested in interdisciplinary research on the sustainable environmental design of urban habitats , public health, climate change, and computational sciences .
Interested applicants please send the following
- Brief research proposal
- CV
- Transcripts
- English test result for international applicants
For outstanding students, University of Cambridge offers financial support through extremely competeitive scholarships. Several students also bring in funding from extrenal bodies to support their studies.
For University of Cambridge's Ph.D. application guidelines and funding sources, visit the links provided.
University of Cambridge's PhD application guidelines
The Gates Cambridge Scholarship
University of Cambridge's PhD funding sources
Please note that applications open in early September, and you should consider both the course deadline and the funding deadline if applicable.
Current PhD students
Other Professional Activities
2024- Senior Advisor, Pathfinder Initiative, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK
2024- Nominated specialist, International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) for Special Report on Climate Change and Cities
2023-present Steering Committee, Cambridge Centre for Data-Driven Discovery (C2D3), University of Cambridge
2023-present Steering Committee, Environmental Sustainability Strategy, University of Cambridge
2023-present Steering Committee, Healthcare Innovation: Engineering, Systems and Improvement (Unit 4 Co-Lead: Patient and population health), University of Cambridge
2023-present Chair of Research Ethics Committee, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge
2019-present Strategic Committee, Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment (IDBE), Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), University of Cambridge
2021-2023 Chair of Equality and Diversity Committee, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge
2020-present Steering Committee, Cambridge Global Challenges, University of Cambridge 2015
2015 Nominated to represent Indian Institute of Technology Bombay to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs , Government of India on Affordable Housing Policy
Editorial Appointments
2024 - Associate Editor, Urban Climate, Elsevier
2023 - Executive Editorial Board, Environmental Research: Health, IOP Science
2023 - Editorial Board (Sustainability), Nature Scientific Reports, Nature Portfolio
2022 - Editorial Board, Habitat International, Elsevier
2022 - Editorial Board,Cities and Built Environment, Elsevier
2020 - Editorial Board, Advances in Building Energy Research, Taylor Francis
2018 - Editorial Board,Area Development and Policy – Taylor Francis
2020 - Editorial Board, Sustainability -MDPI
2018 - Editorial Board, Frontiers in Water
2017 - Editorial Board, Urban Planning – Cogitatio Press
