Melissa Bilec

Dr. Bilec is an associate professor in the Swanson School of Engineering’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; she is the Deputy Director of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation.  She is also a Roberta A. Luxbacher Faculty Fellow.

Dr. Bilec’s research program focuses on sustainable communities, the built environment, life cycle assessment, sustainable healthcare, and indoor air impacts.   She is interested in improving system-level environmental performance of buildings, while developing a deeper understanding of indoor environmental quality, occupant impacts, and energy use. She is working with local businesses and communities to promote ambient and indoor air quality awareness through air quality monitoring, civic engagement, and citizen science.

Dr. Bilec has 59 journal articles and 47 conference proceedings and has secured $6.25 million in funding, including 9 National Science Foundation grants.  She has received four education excellence award, and she developed a new M.S. in Sustainable Engineering degree and a university-wide undergraduate certificate in sustainability. Dr. Bilec’s work prior to academia included tenure at the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh where she worked on green infrastructure projects, including the conversion of a 100-year bridge into a pedestrian bridge.  Dr. Bilec serves on the Green Building Alliance Board, Committee for Health, and NIH’s Health in Buildings Roundtable.