Riham Ahmed

Riham Ahmed is a Senior Lecturer in Architectural Technology at the University of Northampton, affiliated with the Art & Design Centre for Sustainable Futures. She is the Subject Lead for BIM and is launching an MSc in BIM-Enabled Sustainable Buildings’ Design and High-Performance Buildings. She holds a PhD from the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies at University College London in Environmental Design and Engineering.

Education:

• PhD in Environmental Design and Engineering, University College London (UCL), Bartlett School of Graduate Studies (awarded 17 Nov 2017)

Her research focuses on the interplay between indoor environmental quality—particularly indoor air quality, ventilation, and thermal comfort—and human cognitive performance and productivity, with a special emphasis on adult females in hot climates. She has conducted pioneering work in Saudi Arabia and the MENA region, proposing evidence-based design solutions for commercial and educational buildings. Her research contributes to policy formulation for building standards and has been recognized with the Best Paper Award at the IBPC Conference, USA, in 2018.

Recent publications highlight trends in environmental design, cognitive performance, and sustainable architecture, particularly in educational and commercial buildings. Her work integrates advanced multivariable and multilevel statistical modeling to assess confounding factors in occupant wellbeing.

Scientific Awards:

• Best Paper Award, IBPC Conference, USA, 2018

Riham Ahmed has successfully led major research projects and secured significant funding, including £1.2 million from King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and £150,000 from the Qatar National Research Fund. She serves as a consultant and BIM lead for leading UK architecture firms such as Foster + Partners. She has supervised over 400 students and designed multiple accredited academic modules. She is also active in editorial roles, serving as a reviewer and editor for journals including the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Mental Health and the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Labs and Research Teams: She is actively involved in research networks across the MENA region, particularly through ASHRAE conferences, where she has established platforms for collaboration between researchers, investors, and institutions in Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. She leads a research trajectory focused on sustainable, health-oriented building design and performance evaluation in extreme climates.