CBE Director and Professor of Architecture
Gail S. Brager, PhD, is a Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley and the Director of CBE. She has led many research efforts, such as design for high-performance buildings, post-occupancy evaluation, thermal comfort and adaptation in naturally ventilated and mixed-mode buildings, assessment of energy and indoor environmental quality. She co-authored the book Experiential Design Schemas with Prof. Mark DeKay, intersecting building and health sciences with architectural design and aimed at how to create rich, multi-sensory, nature-connected experiences in buildings.
She received PhD and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley, and a BS in Mechanical and Environmental Engineering from UC Santa Barbara. In addition to her CBE leadership, Brager holds other university administrative positions as the Director of the Center for Environmental Design Research and Associate Dean of UC Berkeley’s Graduate Division. Her awards include NSF’s Presidential Young Investigator Award, Progressive Architecture Research Award, AIA Education Award, Places/EDRA Place-based Research Award, several Best Paper Awards, ISIAQ and ASHRAE Fellow, and UC Berkeley’s Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentorship.