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Dr. Ronita Bardhan is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Built Environment and Deputy Head of Architecture at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on data-driven design, climate change, and health equity in global built environments
Dr. Ronita Bardhan is a highly distinguished architectural engineer and urban studies educator, serving as an Associate Professor of Sustainable Built Environment and the Director of Research & Deputy Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge. She leads the influential Cambridge Sustainable Design Group (CSDG), whose vertebral research theme is “Data-Driven Design Heuristics for Sustainable Built Environment.”
Her work stands at the critical intersection of the built environment, climate change, and public health, employing rigorous, data-driven design strategies to achieve “precision prevention” from both health and energy burdens in a rapidly warming world. This interdisciplinary approach is evidenced by her courtesy faculty roles at Cambridge Public Health and the Cambridge Computer Laboratory, allowing her to triangulate building physics, engineering, machine learning/AI, and social science data to develop truly integrated solutions.
Dr. Bardhan’s scholarship is globally impactful, particularly her seminal work on gender-inclusive climate adaptation in built environments, which is actively shaping policies in the Global South. Her pioneer algorithms for identifying decarbonisation potential in UK buildings and assessing climate heat stress through a lens of gender equity have brought her work to the attention of major policymakers and media outlets worldwide, including the BBC, TIME, CNN, and the Washington Post.
Her extensive research on climate, public health, and social housing—specifically in Slum Rehabilitation projects across India, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, and Brazil—has informed policy at the highest levels and is frequently consulted by international agencies like the World Bank and the ADB on issues of affordable housing, health, and climate extreme events.
Beyond her research and leadership roles, Dr. Bardhan is a highly respected voice in the academic and professional communities. She is ranked among the top 2% of scientists in her domain and was honored as a Top 50 Finalist Woman in Engineering, UK 2024. Within the University, she holds numerous crucial positions, including Director of Studies and Fellow in Architecture at Selwyn College, and Chair of the Research Ethics Committee at the Department of Architecture and History of Arts.
Her commitment to institutional governance is further demonstrated by her membership on the Cambridge Environmental Sustainability Strategy Committee. Ronita is also an ardent advocate for equality, diversity, and inclusion, actively promoting the shared vision that “everyone benefits from strength in difference and that diversity is instrumental to success.” Through her teaching, leadership, and highly cited publications, Dr. Bardhan is not only advancing the technical solutions for a low-carbon transition but is fundamentally reframing how we approach sustainable urban habitats with a focus on equity and resilience.
Dr. Ronita Bardhan
- Position: Associate Professor of Sustainable Built Environment, Director of Research & Deputy Head of Department of Architecture
- Country: UK
- University: University of Cambridge
- Faculty/School: Faculty of Architecture and History of Art
- Department: Department of Architecture
Contact Information
- Email Address: rb867[@]cam[dot]ac[dot]uk
- Linkedin: Ronita Bardhan
- Phone: 01223 332969
- Personal/University Profile Page
- Sustainable Design Group
- Schedule a meeting with me
- Cambridge Public Health
- Department of Computer Science and Technology
- Centre for Science and Policy
- Google Scholar
- Behaviour and Building Performance Group
- Cambridge Centre for Data-Driven Discovery
- University of Cambridge – Environmental Sustainability Strategy Committee
- Energy IRC
Research Interests / Areas of Expertise
- Heat-health and the Built Environment (Precision Prevention)
- Decarbonising the Built Environment (Pioneer Algorithm Development)
- Urban Microscale Urban Climatology & Modelling
- Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Computer Vision
- Building Performance: Simulation; Energy Efficiency
Scholarship Supervision Availability
Scholarship Supervision Availability: Yes
Additional Scholarship-Seeker Details:
- Currently Supervises: Up to 1–2 PhD, 2 MAUS, and 2 MArch students per cohort.
- Seeks: Highly motivated and energetic individuals interested in interdisciplinary research on sustainable environmental design, public health, climate change, and computational sciences.
- Application Requirement: Brief research proposal, CV, Transcripts, English test result (for international applicants).
Current Projects or Publications (Key Publications)
- Bardhan, R*., Debnath, R., and Mukherjee, B. (2024). Factor in gender to beat the heat in impoverished settlements, Nature.
- Sun, M., Bardhan, R*. (2024). Identifying Hard-to-Decarbonize houses from multi-source data in Cambridge, UK, Sustainable Cities and Society.
- Debnath, R., Bardhan, R*., & Bell, M. L. (2023). Lethal heatwaves are challenging India’s sustainable development. PLOS Climate.
Number of Graduate Students Supervised
5 Current PhD Students (Jiayu Pan, I-Dec Goh, Haiwei Li, Maoran Sun, Andres Zuniga-Gonzalez), plus multiple MPhil/MAUS students per year.
Scholarship/Funding Opportunities Linked
- The Gates Cambridge Scholarship
- University of Cambridge’s PhD funding sources (Extremely competitive)
Languages Spoken: Not provided
Preferred Intake / Application Window: Early September (align with University course and funding deadlines).
Response Time / Availability Status: Not provided
