Chandra Sekhar is a Professor in the Department of the Built Environment at the National University of Singapore, where he has been a faculty for the past three decades and teaches at all levels.  He is one of the three pioneers who developed the Indoor Air Quality Research Unit at NUS in the early 90s and the team has since been conducting research in Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in buildings.  Their tagline has always been Energy Efficient Healthy Buildings, and through their collaborative research findings, they have made significant contributions to the understanding and enhancement of HVAC systems on the comfort, well-being, health and productivity of occupants in tropical buildings.  Chandra is a strong advocate on the importance of ventilation in enhancing IAQ in buildings and has led research projects aimed at decoupling ventilation from cooling, and advanced room air distribution that involves Personalized Ventilation and Personalized Exhaust systems.  His research interests include thermal comfort, ventilation and IAQ, airborne infection control, sleeping environments and sleep quality, energy efficient HVAC systems, building energy analysis and integrated building design. He publishes widely in these fields in international journals and conferences. He is a past Associate Editor of ASHRAE Science and Technology for the Built Environment journal and a current Regional Editor of Indoor and Built Environment journal.  He is also currently Editorial Advisory Board Member of Building and Environment journal and an editorial board member of Energy and Buildings, International Journal of Ventilation (formerly) and International Journal of Sustainable Built Environment.  He is a co-inventor and holds 3 US and other patents. As a Keynote speaker at international conferences and as an ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer, he is regularly invited to speak in scientific and technical events around the world. He has been recognised through several awards from ASHRAE, SHASE Japan, ASEAN and Singapore. He is a member of the International Scientific/Advisory Committees of the Healthy Buildings, Indoor Air, ASHRAE IAQ, ROOMVENT, CLIMA and IAQVEC series of conferences. He is active in Standards, Technical and Position Document committees in ASHRAE and is also actively involved in standardization activities in Singapore.  He is currently ASHRAE Vice President and Board Member (2023-2025), and a member of SSPC241 that developed ASHRAE Standard 241 (Control of Infectious Aerosols). Since the beginning of the global pandemic, he has played a key role in the collective global effort to combat the spread of COVID-19 in built environments from engineering control perspectives. He was involved in the Residential and Applications teams of the ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force. He is an Invited Member of the WHO Environment and Engineering Control Expert Advisory Panel (ECAP) for COVID-19 that published the “Roadmap to improve and ensure good indoor ventilation in the context of COVID-19” in March 2021. He was a Co-convenor of the Working Group that developed the Singapore Standard SS 554: Code of Practice for Indoor Air Quality for Air-conditioned Buildings, which was first launched in November 2009 and subsequently revised in 2016. During 2020-2021, he was also an active member of the Working Groups for SS553 and SS554, both of which were aimed at developing COVID-19 related amendment/advisory.  He is now a member of both these Singapore Standards currently undergoing review in their periodic cycle. He was a Director-At-Large (2018-2021) on the ASHRAE Board of Directors and has also served the ASHRAE Singapore Chapter in various capacities, including as its President during 2010-2011 and as a BOG member.

He loves nature, sports and travelling.