University welcomes expert in sustainable buildings and environment

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

Professor Tim Dixon

The University is delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Tim Dixon as the new Chair in Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment.

Professor Dixon's expertise and research in areas such as urban regeneration and reducing the environmental impact of current and future buildings, reinforces the University's reputation as a world leader in research relating to sustainability in the built environment.

Professor Dixon will be based in the School of Construction Management and Engineering. Head of School, Professor Stuart Green said; "Tim has extensive experience of interdisciplinary research into sustainability in the built environment, thereby adding further critical mass to one of the University's prioritised research areas. His appointment brings new leadership capability and confirms the University of Reading's status as a centre of excellence in research relating to the adaptation of the built environment to climate change."

Professor Dixon joins the University from Oxford Brookes University where he was Professor of Real Estate and Director of the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development. Before then he was Research Director and Senior Tutor at the College of Estate Management based on the University's Whiteknights Campus.

Professor Dixon has led many projects across a range of areas during more than 25 years of research leadership and management. This has produced close to £2.5m of income over the last 12 years from industry, the research councils and other sources.

He was recently commissioned by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to examine the low carbon plans and strategies of the top 60 cities in the UK. Giving an overview of how cities are faring, Professor Dixon also examined why some are performing better than others and looked at major barriers that could prevent cities reaching national 2050 emissions targets.

Professor Dixon said: "I am very much looking forward to working in such a research intensive University and within a School and Faculty which has a strong and exciting interdisciplinary research base. I know Reading well from my previous time here and I am looking forward to helping shape the new and expanding portfolio of research based around ‘sustainability in the built environment', and working across the University with colleagues in the Faculty of Science, Henley Business School, the Walker Institute for Climate Change Research and The Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments (TSBE) Centre."