Christoph Reinhart is Professor of Building Technology in the Department of Architecture at MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working in Architecture and Design as a building scientist and architectural educator focused on sustainable building design and environmental modeling. A physicist by training, he holds an undergraduate degree in semiconductor physics from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, a master’s degree in semiconductor physics from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and a doctorate in architecture (Dr.-Ing.) from the Technical University of Karlsruhe in 2001. Reinhart's career includes staff scientist roles at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany and the National Research Council of Canada from 1997 to 2008, teaching at McGill University, and leading the sustainable design concentration at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design from 2008, where the student forum voted him Teacher of the Year for the Department of Architecture in 2009. He joined MIT in 2012 as associate professor with tenure in the Department of Architecture, advanced to full professor, and directs the Sustainable Design Lab (SDL), an interdisciplinary group developing design workflows, planning tools, and metrics to evaluate environmental performance of buildings and neighborhoods. He is a managing member of Solemma, a Harvard University spinoff, and served as cofounder and strategic development advisor for MIT spinoff mapdwell until its acquisition by Palmetto Clean Technology in 2021.

Reinhart’s research specializations encompass sustainable building design, daylighting, building performance simulation, urban building energy modeling, building retrofits, and heat pump deployment. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles, three textbooks on daylighting published by Building Technology Press, and seven book chapters. Prominent publications include “Urban building energy modeling–A review of a nascent field” (with C.C. Davila, Building and Environment, 2016), “Dynamic daylight performance metrics for sustainable building design” (with J. Mardaljevic and Z. Rogers, Leukos, 2006), and “Lightswitch-2002: a model for manual and automated control of electric lighting and blinds” (Solar Energy, 2004). His work, funded by the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, governments of Canada, Germany, Kuwait, and Portugal, and companies such as Autodesk, Philips, and Shell, has garnered the Fraunhofer Bessel Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2018), IBPSA-USA Distinguished Achievement Award (2016), Star of Building in Science award by Buildings4Change magazine (2013), and seven best paper awards. Products from SDL and Solemma are used in practice and education in over 90 countries, significantly impacting energy-efficient design and occupant comfort.

Professional Email: tito_@mit.edu