The 2016 Research Seed Funding, sponsored by Taipei Financial Center Corp, was awarded to Brent Stephens, an associate professor of architectural engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) who worked with Luke Leung, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), to conduct research measuring the vertical distribution of both indoor and outdoor pollutants, including particulate matter, ozone, and nitrogen oxides, in a sample of tall buildings in Chicago, United States. The project, entitled “Vertical Variations in Indoor Exposures to Outdoor Pollutants in Tall Buildings,” served to characterize the impacts of building height on human exposures to outdoor pollutants.

The research project began within two months of the award being given, and was completed within nine months, at which point a report was delivered to CTBUH for publication and dissemination. The winning proposal was chosen by CTBUH’s Expert Peer Review Committee out of 28 total submissions.