Pettenkofer Gold Medal

The Pettenkofer Gold Medal is awarded triennially at the Indoor Air Conference by the Academy to an individual in recognition of outstanding work in advancing the indoor air sciences. The medal, which is the Academy's highest award, honors Prof. Max von Pettenkofer as the founder of modern hygiene with his pioneering work on CO2 and IAQ.

2024 Awardee
2022 Pettenkofer Award Winner Yuguo Li

The 2024 Pettenkofer Award was given to Dr. Richard de Dear, Professor Emeritus, University of Sydney, Australia, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to our understanding of thermal comfort in the built environment.

Over the last 35 years, Professor Richard de Dear has focused his research career on defining what occupants want and need from their built environments, and assessing the performance of buildings in terms of meeting those requirements. He is currently the most highly cited living researcher in the domain of thermal comfort, with over 250 peer-reviewed papers plus several monographs on the subject. Within that body of research it is his adaptive model of thermal comfort that’s had the greatest impact, not just on the research community but also on the design and operation of actual buildings. De Dear's adaptive model underpins the American Society of Heating and the Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers’ thermal comfort standard, ASHRAE 55-2004, 2010, 2013, which in turn, informs several national thermal comfort standards around the world.

Indoor Air 2024	Professor Richard De Dear (Australia)
Indoor Air 2022	Professor Yuguo Li (China)
Indoor Air 2020	Professor Tunga Salthammer (Germany)
Indoor Air 2018	Professor William Nazaroff (USA)
Indoor Air 2016	Professor Shin-Ichi Tanabe (Japan)
Indoor Air 2014	Professor Charles Weschler (USA)
Indoor Air 2011	Professor Jan Sundell (China)
Indoor Air 2008	Professor John D. Spengler (USA)