Timur Dogan

Architect, building scientist, faculty fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability

Timur Dogan is an associate professor of architecture and the director of the Environmental Systems Lab at Cornell University. His lab develops simulation tools to study and design for extreme heat.

Dogan says:

“The heat that actually harms people is the heat trapped inside their homes. Europe's heavy, high-thermal-mass buildings normally ride out summer by releasing heat overnight, but a prolonged heat dome breaks that cycle.

“When nights stay hot, heat builds up in the structure day after day, indoor conditions get steadily worse, and the body never recovers. That slow buildup is often more dangerous than the afternoon peak, and it hits hardest older adults, people with health conditions, and anyone without air conditioning.

“It's a grid problem too: the moment everyone reaches for cooling, demand and prices spike, and the system is most strained exactly when the vulnerable can least afford to lose power."