Keynote Speakers

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Topic: Strengthening Canada's Buildings in a Changing Climate: A Journey from Research to Resilience  

Marianne Armstrong is Director of the National Research Council’s Climate Resilient Built Environment Initiative, where she plays a pivotal role in shaping and implementing a national research program aimed at enhancing the resilience of Canada's infrastructure and buildings against climate change and extreme events. Over the past decade, she has directed and inspired multi-disciplinary resources at the NRC and collaborators from over 170 different organizations to work together to affect change to national guidance, codes and standards, and achieve critical progress towards a sustainable and resilient future for Canada's built environment.

Topic: Service Life and Durability Planning of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Sea-link Project

Prof. Kefei Li is a professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the School of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University. His research and academic contributions are in the field of civil engineering and building durability. He also served as Chair of the 16th International Conference on the Durability of Building Materials and Components (DBMC).

Topic: Metal–Organic Frameworks for Energy-efficient and Low-carbon Building

 Prof. Dr. Menghao Qin is a leading building physicist specializing in sustainable building materials and high-performance building systems at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). He is internationally recognized for pioneering the integration of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) into building applications, advancing both energy efficiency and indoor air quality. Prof. Qin also holds the Saint-Gobain Chair professorship at ESPCI/ENS Paris, France, and serves as the Operating Agent of the International Energy Agency (IEA-EBC) Annex 92 - Smart materials for energy-efficient heating, cooling, and IAQ control in residential buildings. Before joining DTU, he was a full professor and founding director of the Center for Sustainable Building Research at Nanjing University, China. Dr. Qin also has extensive experience in environmental system design and green building consultancy, with contributions to major projects worldwide. 

Topic: Use of Artificial Intelligence in service life prediction and maintenance planning  

Ana Silva is a researcher & innovation strategist focused on activating and nourishing innovation ecosystems towards a more sustainable and resilient society. Ana’s experience ranges from coordination of high-level multistakeholder and interdisciplinary collaboration projects, to developing AI-driven tools for smarter decision-making in asset intensive sectors that are critical for the functioning of society. Her activities cover the construction, defense, energy, transportation and water sectors. She is currently the Head of Research and Innovation at Porvalor, with a focus on identifying market trends and emerging technologies to develop innovation opportunities within the built environment. Ana Silva authored over 90 peer-reviewed publications and two scientific books, holds a PhD in Civil Engineering and is currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science. 

Topic: Climate change and Energy shift – expectations on building and construction sector and industry 

 Christer Sjöström is an R&D engineer and senior Professor of KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. He has a long background in working with R&D and standardisation within areas such as performance over time of materials, products and technical systems and has contributed to most of the DBMC-events since the start of the series of conferences. One of his major interests is the important interrelation of academic research and industrial and societal development. He was President of CIB during 1995 – 1998, a period that was concluded with a Congress focussing “Construction and the Environment”. With his backstory of research work in industry, at research institutes and academy he has also over the years advised start-up companies and founded new companies. He is today counsellor and Board Member of a start-up with a patented accelerator technology to support production of green hydrogen gas.