Research award for AUT architect
Dr Priscila Besen, a lecturer in sustainable architecture at the School of Future Environments, has received the 2023 Best Paper Award of a Young Author from the journal Building and Environment (BAE).
Dr Besen’s paper, ‘Integrating energy retrofit with seismic upgrades to future-proof built heritage: Case studies of unreinforced masonry buildings in Aotearoa New Zealand’, is one of only two papers to receive the award, where the first author must be under 35.
The paper shared the results from Dr Besen’s PhD research on retrofitting historic buildings for a sustainable future through integrated approaches.
According to the journal’s co-editor-in-chief, Xudong Yang, a Professor of Building Science and Vice Dean at Tsinghua University’s School of Architecture in Bejing, the paper was selected after a “rigorous and competitive selection process by receiving high evaluations from reviewers, and nominated by one of the editors, and evaluated by the editorial board members, and finally recommended by the award selection committee.”
The paper was awarded for the originality of approach, methods, or hypotheses; its contribution to the advancement of the field; the quality of the communication/presentation and clarity of the text and illustrations; and the soundness of the science.
In 2023, the BAE journal received nearly 6000 submissions in total and accepted around 17% of them.
“You should be very proud of this achievement,” Professor Xudong Yang said.
“On behalf of the entire editorial team, editors-in-chief Professor Qingyan Chen and I want to thank you and co-authors for publishing such an excellent paper in BAE.
“We look forward to your continued contribution to the journal.”