Speakers

Prof. dr. Alessandra Bonazza is senior researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISAC), where she coordinates the research unit “Impacts on Environment, Cultural Heritage and Human Health”. PhD in Earth Sciences, adjunct Professor at the University of Bologna and Honorary Professor at the University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria. She is currently principal investigator in the HORIZON EU Project ChemiNova “Novel technologies for on-site and remote collaborative enriched monitoring to detect structural and chemical damages in cultural heritage assets" and project manager of the Interreg Central EU Project INACO “INnovative strategies for the Adoption of risk management plans to enhance the resilience of sensitive Cultural and natural heritage Objectives against climate hazards in river basin districts”.

Prof. Steven Caluwaerts (Ghent University – Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium) heads a research team focused on examining the interactions between urban environments and atmospheric processes. His work includes the design and implementation of several observational campaigns aimed at quantifying the urban heat island effect in Belgian cities. In addition to observational data collection, he employs numerical models to analyze urban climate. His research includes the follow-up of urban renovation projects on thermal comfort by performing before and after measurements. Furthermore, he contributes to the development and assessment of updated climate projections for Belgium. He is the coordinator of the postgraduate program on Weather and Climate Modelling at Ghent University.

Prof. dr. Tim De Kock is associated to the programs Heritage Studies and Conservation-Restoration of the University of Antwerp, Belgium. His research is situated where the overlap between heritage science and environmental science applies to porous geomaterials in heritage buildings. This includes the study of hygrothermal processes in different environments and sustainable approaches for stone conservation and restoration, cross-cutting spatial and temporal scales. In other words, he studies how pore scale processes contribute to long-term resilient buildings.

Pieterjan Franck is project leader for the design team of the Museum Vleeshuis | Sound of the City in Antwerp. He holds a master’s degree in Architectural Engineering from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Since 2011, he has been working at Origin Architecture & Engineering, a practice specialized in heritage, where he has led and contributed to numerous restoration and adaptive reuse projects. His portfolio includes the restoration of the old courthouse in Antwerp, the ongoing restoration studies of the Antwerp Pilotage Building on the banks of the Scheldt, and feasibility studies for the preservation of the Atlantikwall heritage sites along the Belgian coast, focusing on the impact of climate and exposure on vulnerable structures.

: Dr. Sebastiaan Godts is a conservation scientist at KIK-IRPA’s Monuments Lab in Brussels, where he combines chemistry, geology and geophysics to understand how heritage materials degrade over time. His work includes on-site investigations and laboratory analysis to develop practical conservation strategies for monuments and archaeological sites. He specializes in salt and moisture-related decay of stone and mortars, integrating quantitative data analysis to inform preservation under changing climatic conditions. His research address material behavior and sustainably to strengthen conservation science to support long-term care of built heritage.

Roald Hayen is a civil engineer (KU Leuven) with an Advanced Master in Conservation of Historic Towns and Buildings (R. Lemaire Centre, KU Leuven). Following a position as researcher on the European project Pointing at KU Leuven, he joined the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) in 2008 as a researcher in the Monuments laboratory. His primary expertise encompasses porous building materials (lime mortars in the first place, but also bricks, natural stone, or modern mortars, and their interactions) and hygrothermal modelling of moisture in built structures relative to the environmental conditions. He has headed the laboratories department since 2017. Beyond daily departmental management, Roald coordinates and partners in numerous national and international research projects.

Dr. Johanna Leissner has over 25 years of experience working in and managing cultural heritage research. For over 20 years, her focus has been on the impacts of climate change on cultural heritage. She chaired the OMC (Open Method of Coordination) Expert Group of EU Member States on Strengthening Cultural Heritage Resilience to Climate Change from 2021 to 2022 and again in 2024.

Dr. Bikram Koirala (Member, IEEE) received his Ph.D. in 2021 from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, with a dissertation entitled "Development of Advanced Hyperspectral Unmixing Methods." He is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO). His research interests include machine learning, deep learning, radiative transfer modeling, and hyperspectral image processing.

Sylvain Marchi earned his degree in physics from the Université de Liège. Driven by a strong interest in climate-related issues, he began a PhD in 2014 at the Université Catholique de Louvain, focusing on the predictability of Antarctic sea ice on seasonal to interannual timescales, which he successfully completed in 2021. He then pursued a postdoctoral position in Nicole van Lipzig’s team at KU Leuven, where he deepened his research into Antarctic dynamics, particularly the complex interactions between the atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, and ice sheet. Two years ago, he joined the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI), where he applied bias correction techniques to climate simulations for forest impact studies in Belgium. He is currently contributing to the Climate Impact on Built Heritage (CLIMPACTH) project, investigating the effects of climate change on Belgian cities as part of a broader effort to understand and protect cultural heritage.

Prof. Dr. Scott Allan Orr is an Associate Professor at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage, where he leads the Heritage, Environmental Risk and Data Analytics (HERADA) research group. His work focuses on data-driven methods to understand and manage environmental risks to heritage, particularly climate change and the risks posed for the historic built environment. HERADA is an interdisciplinary team that applies data science and analytics to promote sustainable heritage management. The group develops innovative ways to communicate technical findings and integrates expertise from fields such as engineering, architecture, archaeology, and conservation.

Dr. Jenny Richards is a geographer and heritage scientist based at the University of Oxford. She is interested in the relationship and interactions between heritage and its environment. Over the last 5 years she has recently been working with Prof. Brimblecombe to develop and apply the concept of heritage climatology to improve our understanding of how climate and weather affects a range of heritage typologies. She uses a range of computational modelling approaches combined with case study examples to explore these interactions.

Prof. dr. Oliver Sass is a physical geographer and geomorphologist by training. His PhD thesis at LMU Munich was on rock moisture and rockfall in alpine environment. Later work at the universities of Augsburg, Oxford, Innsbruck and Graz centred around different topics of process geomorphology, always with a focus on moisture measurement in solid rock e.g. in the context of frost weathering. Over the past 10-20 years, research work has increasingly been extended to natural stone on historic buildings and rock-hewn heritage sites. Oliver recently holds the chair of geomorphology at University of Bayreuth. Current lab and field work focusses on the influence of vegetation on rock moisture in natural and cultural heritage context.

Prof. dr. Paul Scheunders is affiliated to the Department of Physics from the University of Antwerp. His research interest is in the development of processing and analysis methodologies for multi-and hyperspectral image data for remote sensing and close-range applications.

Dr. Laurenz Schröer is a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University. He obtained in 2021 an interdisciplinary PhD at Ghent University in the field of Geology and Bioscience Engineering. His research focuses on the interaction of microorganisms with porous natural building stones and their visualization. Currently, he works as the facility manager of the EXCITE network at the Centre for X-ray Tomography (UGCT), where he facilitates numerous research projects focused on imaging earth materials.

Bruno Vanderschelden is a PhD researcher at Ghent University, specializing in the hygrothermal behavior of building facades. His research focuses on both the modeling and experimental assessment of moisture dynamics in masonry construction, with in-depth expertise in brick properties, wind-driven rain exposure, drying behavior, and the resulting facade pathologies. He has extensive experience with hygrothermal simulations, wind and rain modeling, as well as in-situ and lab-based measurement techniques. He graduated in 2020 as a Civil Engineer-Architect from Ghent University, with a master’s thesis that combined property-driven and response-driven approaches to cluster bricks. As part of his doctoral research, he expanded his international experience during a research stay at the National Research Council of Canada. Bruno has been actively involved in research projects addressing the effects of climate change on Belgian heritage buildings, the hygrothermal risks of bio-based insulation materials, and the development of innovative sustainable construction materials.

Prof. dr. Nathan Van Den Bossche is Associate Professor of Building Technology at Ghent University, where he leads research on the performance of building envelopes, focusing on watertightness, airtightness, thermal behavior, hygrothermal simulations, and building pathology. He is head of a research team of about ten members and oversees the university’s Facade Testing Centre. He graduated as a Civil Engineer-Architect from Ghent University in 2005 and earned his PhD in 2013 with a dissertation on the watertightness of building components. He gained professional and research experience at Bureau Bouwtechniek, the National Research Council of Canada, and as a guest professor at Politecnico di Milano. Nathan has published over 200 scientific papers and is frequently involved as a consultant in high-profile architectural projects, including work with Zaha Hadid Architects, Neutelings Riedijk, Renzo Piano, and Jean Nouvel. In addition to his engineering background, he holds a Bachelor's in Real Estate and is currently completing the Executive Master in Real Estate at Antwerp Management School. He also lectures in several real estate education programs.