20 papers every BERG student should read

By Brent Stephens on February 15, 2015

My colleague Michael Waring, who directs the Indoor Environment Research Group at Drexel University, recently shared a thought with me. He was thinking about compiling a list of about 20 papers that every graduate student in his group should read and be very familiar with. It’s a great idea, so here I am doing the same.

Below is a list of 20 papers I think every Built Environment Research Group student (BERGer) should read. Narrowing to only 20 papers is tough. In fact, this may forever be considered a rough draft of a list, and it will most certainly change or expand over time. But I have chosen these articles to span a wide range of topics related to energy and air quality in the built environment, including the physics or chemistry of indoor air pollutants, human exposure to indoor pollutants and health effects, and energy efficiency in buildings. There may be other even better articles on each topic, but these were chosen for their combination of impact on research and thought in their areas of inquiry, the usefulness of their methods, their clarity in presentation, and for the references included within them as well as their links to other papers that have referenced them upon publication.

The papers are grouped by category, but listed in no particular order. Contact me directly if you need copies of any of the papers (they can all be found on the BERG server as well). I should note that this list is by no means exhaustive, but if you begin within the pages below and work to follow the content to suit your interests, I promise that you will unlock a world of knowledge and curiosity that will make you a better researcher.

 Indoor air physics and chemistry

  1. Weschler, 2009. Changes in indoor pollutants since the 1950s. Atmospheric Environment 43(1):153-169.
  2. Riley et al., 2002. Indoor particulate matter of outdoor origin: importance of size-dependent removal mechanisms. Environmental Science and Technology 36(2):200-207.
  3. Nazaroff, 2004. Indoor particle dynamics. Indoor Air 14(S7):175-183.
  4. Weschler, 2000. Ozone in indoor environments: concentration and chemistry. Indoor Air 10(4):269-288.
  5. Liu and Nazaroff, 2001. Modeling pollutant penetration across building envelopes. Atmospheric Environment 35(26):4451-4462.
  6. Nazaroff and Cass, 1986. Mathematical modeling of chemically reactive pollutants in indoor air. Environmental Science and Technology 20(9):924-934.
  7. Lai and Nazaroff, 2000. Modeling indoor particle deposition from turbulent flow onto smooth surfaces. Journal of Aerosol Science 31(4):463-476.
  8. Qian et al., 2012. Size-resolved emission rates of airborne bacteria and fungi in an occupied classroom. Indoor Air 22(4):339-351.

Indoor air pollution: Human exposure and health effects

  1. Klepeis et al., 2001. The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS): a resource for assessing exposure to environmental pollutants. Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology 11:231-252.
  2. Logue et al., 2011. Hazard assessment of chemical air contaminants measured in residences. Indoor Air 21(2):92-109.
  3. Logue et al., 2012. A method to estimate the chronic health impact of air pollutants in U.S. residences. Environmental Health Perspectives 120(2):216-222.
  4. Weschler, 2006. Ozone’s impact on public health: contributions from indoor exposures to ozone and products of ozone-initiated chemistry. Environmental Health Perspectives 114(10):1489-1496.
  5. Tang et al., 2006. Factors involved in the aerosol transmission of infection and control of ventilation in healthcare premises. Journal of Hospital Infection 64(2):100-114.
  6. Fisk, 2000. Health and productivity gains from better indoor environments and their relationship with building energy efficiency. Annual Review of Energy and the Environment 25:537-566.
  7. Bruce et al., 2000. Indoor air pollution in developing countries: a major environmental and public health challenge. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 78(9):1078-1092.
  8. Wallace and Ott 2011. Personal exposure to ultrafine particles. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology 21:20–30.

Building energy efficiency and energy simulation

  1. Parker, 2009. Very low energy homes in the United States: Perspectives on performance from measured data. Energy and Buildings 41(5):512-520.
  2. Two-parts of the same journal: McClellan and Pederson, 1997. Investigation of outside heat balance models for use in a heat balance cooling load calculation procedure. ASHRAE Transactions 103:469-484, and Liesen and Pederson, 1997. An evaluation of inside surface heat balance models for cooling load calculations. ASHRAE Transactions 103:485-502. (Sorry for cheating and combining two here.)
  3. ürge-Vorsatz et al., 2007. Mitigating CO2 emissions from energy use in the world’s buildings. Building Research and Information 35(4):379-398.
  4. Harvey, 2009. Reducing energy use in the buildings sector: measures, costs, and examples. Energy Efficiency 2(2):139-163.

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Filed under: Building science | Doing research | Energy efficiency | Environmental health | Experimental methods | Exposure measurement | Indoor air pollution | Infectious disease | Literature round-up