Rate My Professor Rajat Gupta

Professor Rajat Gupta is Professor of Sustainable Architecture and Climate Change at Oxford Brookes University in the School of Architecture, holding a senior professorial chair at the highest level. He is Director of the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development and the Low Carbon Building Research Group. His research focuses on evaluating building performance from a socio-technical perspective, smart energy systems, local area energy mapping, scaling up energy retrofits, indoor air quality, and overheating in care settings and homes. Gupta has taught undergraduate and postgraduate modules on building performance evaluation and low carbon building technologies since 2004. He has led major projects as Principal Investigator, including RESIDE (£1.3m EPSRC-DST Newton Fund, 2017-2022) on residential energy demand reduction in India, EVALOC (£1.14m ESRC/EPSRC), Learn-BPE (£50k RAEng Newton Fund, 2017-2019), and MaS-SHIP (£140k UN funded, 2017-2019). As Co-Investigator, he contributes to EnergyREV (£8m EPSRC), Local Energy Oxfordshire (£13.8m Innovate UK), and NERC-funded projects on climate resilience in care settings.

Gupta has authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications, including 'Energy transition through community energy, local energy and smart local energy system initiatives in the UK: A systematic review of technologies, ownership and user engagement' (Advances in Building Energy Research, 2025), 'Local area energy mapping approach for high-density heat pump deployment' (Buildings & Cities, 2025), and 'Heat-related deaths in social care in England: can the Care Quality Commission ratings system be used to identify care homes that would benefit most from heat adaptation measures?' (Age and Ageing, 2026). He developed DECoRuM® energy mapping software, awarded the inaugural RIBA President’s Award for Research in 2006 based on his PhD thesis, influencing UNEP’s Global Common Carbon Metric ISO standard and UK policy. Recognitions include the ENDS Power List 2025, Best Paper Awards at BSO 2020, SEEDS 2020 and 2019, PLEA 2014, Dean’s Awards (2007, 2005), FRSA (2006), and Visiting Fellowship at Arizona State University (2007). He has delivered 50 international keynotes, examined 20 PhDs, and directs the PLEA network.