Julian Wang
Pennsylvania State University, PA·Engineering·Early-career
A building's envelope, meaning its walls, roof and windows, separates the indoors from the weather. It largely decides how much energy goes into heating and cooling, and how well occupants are protected during heat and cold waves.
- Fields
Engineering
Materials Science
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
building envelope
building energy efficiency
windows
- Grants
- 3 known grants, through Jun 2028
What they work on
- Decompose global solar irradiance into its spectral bands to build a time-dependent model of near-infrared (NIR) light, the invisible heat-carrying part of sunlight, reaching building windows.
- Derive and experimentally validate the thermal and optical behavior of multi-layer glazing containing NIR-selective nanomaterials, accounting for photoexcitation, spectral emissivity, insulating center layers and layer placement.
- Combine the NIR and thermo-optical models to evaluate and optimize dynamic NIR-selective glazing and find the time-varying window properties that minimize building energy use.
- Measure how extreme freeze-thaw, wet-dry and hot-cold cycles degrade the thermal, optical and moisture-control properties of building envelope materials, using lab tests and simulations.
- Estimate life-cycle carbon emissions caused by deteriorating envelope performance over a 55-year building life under current and future weather, and integrate space-time degradation into life-cycle energy and carbon models.
- Build a multiscale framework, from individual occupants to regions, that combines physical and social factors to assess the resilience of sustainable buildings and living environments to heat and cold waves, using simulations and surveys.
- Use the resilience framework to support preparedness during extreme temperature events in urban and rural regions and to develop efficient and fair response and management strategies.
More about the research
This work asks how envelopes, and especially windows, can be designed to use less energy. It also asks what happens to envelope performance, carbon emissions and the people inside when extreme weather strikes. The three projects range from the light-handling physics of window glass, to how materials wear out under harsh weather, to how whole communities can prepare for extreme temperatures.
Why it matters
Windows that adjust solar heat while staying clear could substantially cut national building energy use. Knowing how extreme weather wears down envelopes could help utilities forecast energy demand more accurately. It could also help architects, builders, facility managers, material makers and policymakers plan repairs and design choices. The thermal resilience framework could help officials decide where limited resources should go before and during heat and cold waves, especially for vulnerable urban and rural households.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Collaborative Research: CAS: Examining carbon emission implications of the impact of extreme weather conditions on building material durability, aging, and deterioration
NSF · Jul 2025 – Jun 2028
CAS-Climate: An Integrated Framework to Investigate Thermal Resilience of Sustainable Buildings and Living Environments for Greater Preparedness to Extreme Temperature Events
NSF · Sep 2022 – Feb 2027
CAREER: Understanding the Thermal and Optical Behaviors of the Near Infrared (NIR)-Selective Dynamic Glazing Structures
NSF · Oct 2019 – Dec 2026
Closest labs
Xiulin Ruan
Purdue University, IN·Engineering
Use high-throughput machine learning to identify the optical constants needed for high visible transparency and low infrared emissivity, and how dopant choice and doping level in n-PBDF can achieve them.
Olga Lauter
University of Texas at El Paso, TX·Engineering
Investigate how socio-cultural factors shape housing construction and energy use in two Alaska Native communities in the Bristol Bay region, using needs assessments and community workshops.
Alexandra Rempel
University of Oregon, OR·Engineering
Build a design tool that picks climate-specific materials and layouts for passive heating and cooling systems by linking structured numerical optimization with existing building energy modeling programs.
The school
Pennsylvania State University: 60 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 743 research doctorates a year.
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