Alice Moncaster

Biography	In July 2023 I joined the University of the West of England as Professor in Sustainable Construction. Overview in roughly chronological order: - Bachelor of Arts (!) in Engineering from Cambridge (the forerunner to the current MEng) (1990-93) - Decade in the construction industry working on civils infrastructure (Balfour Beatty) and later structural building projects (Babtie, Mott MacDonald) (1989-2007) - Research Assistant at the Earthquake Engineering Research Centre at Bristol University, picking up an MSc by research for thesis titled 'The shear modulus of sands at very small strains' (1994-97) - EPSRC-funded PhD at the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA, thesis titled 'Construction sustainability: connecting the social and the technical in a case study of school building projects' (2007-12) - Research post, then Lectureship at the University of Cambridge Centre for Sustainable Development (2008-17) - Director and Deputy Director of masters programme ‘Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment’ (IDBE) run jointly by Depts of Engineering and Architecture at Cambridge (2010-17) - Director of Studies for Engineering, and Fellow of Newnham College (2010-17) - Senior Lecturer in School of Engineering at Open University (2017-23) - Instigated the OU's first Built Environment research cluster (2017-23) - First University Lead for Sustainability for the Open Societal Challenges research programme (2022-23) - Joined UWE as Professor os Sustainable Construction (2023- ), and remain a Visiting Professor at the OU
Research Interests	My research seeks to radically improve the environmental sustainability and resilience of the built environment to climate change, working with colleagues from multiple disciplines and retaining a close link with practitioners and industry. I am known internationally for my work on the life cycle analysis and embodied impacts of buildings and urban environments, applying the principles of the circular economy to the built environment, and retrofitting existing buildings, including heritage buildings. A growing interest is in resilience and adaptation for future climates, including reducing risks from changing climates such as flooding and over-heating, and improving urban air quality. As well as technical research, I explore the socio-technical practices and processes of design and construction, how and why decisions are made in building projects, and the role of community engagement in effective approaches to sustainability and resilience. I also have an ongoing interest in the importance of equality and inclusivity, both within the construction sector, and for the impacts of construction on different communities. I am currently a UK expert on the International Energy Agency Energy in Buildings and Communities programme (IEA EBC) Annex 89 on Implementing Whole Life Carbon in Buildings (2023-27). This follows the same position on the IEA EBC Annex 72 on Assessing Life Cycle Related Environmental Impacts Caused by Buildings (2017-2022), and Annex 57 on Evaluation of Embodied Energy and CO2e for Building Construction (2011-2016). Recent projects include: leading the development of quality data for construction as part of the Life Levels programme with a consortium of European Green Building Councils; Disaster Trade, exploring the social and environmental impacts of importing goods from the global south, with Laurie Parsons at RHUL as well as Exeter and Dhaka Universities; leading the OU’s partnership in the £7m Defra-funded project GRACE, Groundwater Resilience and Community Engagement, led by Buckinghamshire County Council. I was involved in writing the Horizon2020 €10m project DivAirCity looking at nature-based solutions for improving air quality and equality in European cities. I have published extensively, including over 100 journal and peer reviewed conference articles, and have co-edited three books including the 2018 Springer book on Embodied carbon in buildings: Measurement, Management, and Mitigation with Francesco Pomponi (Edinburgh Napier) and Catherine de Wolf (ETH Zurich), and the (in press) Routledge Handbook of Embodied Carbon in the Built Environment with Rahman Azari (Penn State, US). From 2018-21 I was the Academic Lead for the OU's Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in ‘Transforming Engineering Culture’, and was part of the steering groups for the successful Athena Swan Silver Awards at both Cambridge and the OU. I am currently supervising the following PhD students at the OU: - Claude Nsobya (Defra/Bucks Council), building community resilience to groundwater flooding (co-supervisors Karen Potter, Jed Ramsay) - Meng-Chin Tsai (School of Engineering & Innovation Scholarship), urban greening and heat resilience (lead supervisor Leslie Mabon) - Kyriacos Polycarpou (DTA3 COFUND Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Fellowship), decisions to reduce whole life energy and carbon in social housing developments in Cyprus, Sweden and UK (co-supervisors Theo Zamenopoulos and Stephen Burnley, and Tove Malmqvist (KTH, Sweden)). My former OU PhD students Freya Wise and Jane Anderson have both recently defended their theses with flying colours. Previous Cambridge PhD students include Wei Zhou, Hannah Baker, Juan Canavera-Herrera, Sarah Fitton and Kayla Friedman, all of whom completed successfully and have gone on to interesting and diverse positions.

Biography

In July 2023 I joined the University of the West of England as Professor in Sustainable Construction.

Overview in roughly chronological order:
- Bachelor of Arts (!) in Engineering from Cambridge (the forerunner to the current MEng) (1990-93)
- Decade in the construction industry working on civils infrastructure (Balfour Beatty) and later structural building projects (Babtie, Mott MacDonald) (1989-2007)
- Research Assistant at the Earthquake Engineering Research Centre at Bristol University, picking up an MSc by research for thesis titled 'The shear modulus of sands at very small strains' (1994-97)
- EPSRC-funded PhD at the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA, thesis titled 'Construction sustainability: connecting the social and the technical in a case study of school building projects' (2007-12)
- Research post, then Lectureship at the University of Cambridge Centre for Sustainable Development (2008-17)
- Director and Deputy Director of masters programme ‘Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment’ (IDBE) run jointly by Depts of Engineering and Architecture at Cambridge (2010-17)
- Director of Studies for Engineering, and Fellow of Newnham College (2010-17)
- Senior Lecturer in School of Engineering at Open University (2017-23)
- Instigated the OU's first Built Environment research cluster (2017-23)
- First University Lead for Sustainability for the Open Societal Challenges research programme (2022-23)
- Joined UWE as Professor os Sustainable Construction (2023- ), and remain a Visiting Professor at the OU

Research Interests

My research seeks to radically improve the environmental sustainability and resilience of the built environment to climate change, working with colleagues from multiple disciplines and retaining a close link with practitioners and industry.

I am known internationally for my work on the life cycle analysis and embodied impacts of buildings and urban environments, applying the principles of the circular economy to the built environment, and retrofitting existing buildings, including heritage buildings. A growing interest is in resilience and adaptation for future climates, including reducing risks from changing climates such as flooding and over-heating, and improving urban air quality. As well as technical research, I explore the socio-technical practices and processes of design and construction, how and why decisions are made in building projects, and the role of community engagement in effective approaches to sustainability and resilience. I also have an ongoing interest in the importance of equality and inclusivity, both within the construction sector, and for the impacts of construction on different communities.

I am currently a UK expert on the International Energy Agency Energy in Buildings and Communities programme (IEA EBC) Annex 89 on Implementing Whole Life Carbon in Buildings (2023-27). This follows the same position on the IEA EBC Annex 72 on Assessing Life Cycle Related Environmental Impacts Caused by Buildings (2017-2022), and Annex 57 on Evaluation of Embodied Energy and CO2e for Building Construction (2011-2016).

Recent projects include: leading the development of quality data for construction as part of the Life Levels programme with a consortium of European Green Building Councils; Disaster Trade, exploring the social and environmental impacts of importing goods from the global south, with Laurie Parsons at RHUL as well as Exeter and Dhaka Universities; leading the OU’s partnership in the £7m Defra-funded project GRACE, Groundwater Resilience and Community Engagement, led by Buckinghamshire County Council. I was involved in writing the Horizon2020 €10m project DivAirCity looking at nature-based solutions for improving air quality and equality in European cities.

I have published extensively, including over 100 journal and peer reviewed conference articles, and have co-edited three books including the 2018 Springer book on Embodied carbon in buildings: Measurement, Management, and Mitigation with Francesco Pomponi (Edinburgh Napier) and Catherine de Wolf (ETH Zurich), and the (in press) Routledge Handbook of Embodied Carbon in the Built Environment with Rahman Azari (Penn State, US).

From 2018-21 I was the Academic Lead for the OU's Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in ‘Transforming Engineering Culture’, and was part of the steering groups for the successful Athena Swan Silver Awards at both Cambridge and the OU.

I am currently supervising the following PhD students at the OU:

- Claude Nsobya (Defra/Bucks Council), building community resilience to groundwater flooding (co-supervisors Karen Potter, Jed Ramsay)
- Meng-Chin Tsai (School of Engineering & Innovation Scholarship), urban greening and heat resilience (lead supervisor Leslie Mabon)
- Kyriacos Polycarpou (DTA3 COFUND Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Fellowship), decisions to reduce whole life energy and carbon in social housing developments in Cyprus, Sweden and UK (co-supervisors Theo Zamenopoulos and Stephen Burnley, and Tove Malmqvist (KTH, Sweden)).
My former OU PhD students Freya Wise and Jane Anderson have both recently defended their theses with flying colours.
Previous Cambridge PhD students include Wei Zhou, Hannah Baker, Juan Canavera-Herrera, Sarah Fitton and Kayla Friedman, all of whom completed successfully and have gone on to interesting and diverse positions.