Iris Pissens

Iris Pissens is a senior researcher at the MOBI Research Center of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels. She joined the Electrical Engineering and Energy Technology Communities (ETEC) research group in 2021 to manage the VUB campus Lighting Master plan. She supports the team and its research projects in the field of comfort and quality of public spaces. 

She is also a Senior Lecturer at the ULB at the Faculty of Architecture, in Acoustics, and in Natural and Artificial Lighting.

Before joining ETEC, she managed for six years the construction of low-carbon Media broadcasting studios for RTBF in Brussels and Wallonia. She has produced educational corporate films on innovations in building physics and design. For IBGE-BIM, as the Brussels representative of the Regional Energy Platform, she encouraged the long-term involvement of professional clusters, and participated in the research and development of the EPBD calculation method. Iris obtained her Masters in Civil Engineering in Physics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1996, and in Urban Designer at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in 2007.

Her research areas include adaptive climate, sound and light systems in outdoor public spaces, well-being and sustainability. She is interested in community engagement, people-centered approaches, sensitive cities and innovation transfer.