A Note from Our President: Healthy Buildings. Stronger Community. Greater Impact.
By Dr John McKeon, President, ASHRAE Ireland 2026–27
It is a great honour to take on the role of President of ASHRAE Ireland for 2026–27.
ASHRAE has been an important part of my professional journey, and I am particularly proud to have the opportunity to serve the Ireland Chapter at a time when the relationship between buildings, technology, sustainability and human health has perhaps never been more important.
My own route into this world has been slightly unusual.
I trained originally as a medical doctor, graduating from Trinity College Dublin and becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. My early professional life was therefore spent thinking about people, patients and health rather than buildings and engineering systems.
Over time, however, my work increasingly brought those worlds together.
Through founding the iAIR Group, the iAIR Institute and biomedical research organisation Airmid Healthgroup, I became increasingly involved in indoor air quality, allergens, infection control, healthy buildings and the science of how the indoor environment affects the people who occupy it.
That is one of the reasons I have found a professional home within ASHRAE.
Buildings are ultimately about people
Engineering excellence, energy efficiency, decarbonisation and building performance remain fundamental to ASHRAE’s mission.
But ultimately, we design and operate buildings for people.
The indoor environment influences how we work, learn, recover, sleep and live. Ventilation, thermal comfort, air quality, acoustics, lighting and other aspects of indoor environmental quality all contribute to that experience.
This is an area in which I hope my medical and public-health background can bring a slightly different perspective to our Chapter.
Within ASHRAE, I currently serve on the Environmental Health Committee and contribute to the Indoor Environmental Quality Center of Excellence, alongside wider work in standards, research and innovation.
One of the most exciting developments I see is the evolution of the conversation from considering individual building parameters in isolation towards a more holistic understanding of indoor environmental quality and human wellbeing.
That interdisciplinary approach will be an important theme during my year as President.
Healthy Buildings. Stronger Community. Greater Impact.
As I look ahead to 2026–27, I see three closely connected opportunities for ASHRAE Ireland.
Healthy Buildings
Ireland is home to an extraordinary concentration of expertise across engineering, construction, building services, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, technology and research.
We have an opportunity to place the discussion about healthy, resilient and high-performing buildings firmly alongside the equally important conversations about energy and sustainability.
I would like ASHRAE Ireland to provide a forum where engineers can increasingly engage with building scientists, researchers, clinicians, architects, manufacturers and other disciplines.
The challenges facing the built environment are becoming too interconnected for any one profession to solve alone.
Stronger Community
ASHRAE is also, fundamentally, a community.
One of my priorities will therefore be strengthening the connections between our existing members while welcoming the next generation into the Society.
That means continuing to support established professionals while putting particular emphasis on students and Young Engineers in ASHRAE (YEA).
I would like more young professionals in Ireland to discover that ASHRAE is not simply somewhere to attend an occasional technical presentation.
It can provide a pathway into international technical committees, standards development, research, conferences, leadership positions and a worldwide professional network.
Our Chapter should help open those doors.
Greater Impact
We also need to make ASHRAE Ireland increasingly visible beyond our existing community.
Ireland now has globally important industries in areas including data centres, pharmaceuticals, life sciences, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, clean technology and health technology.
Many of the technical challenges facing those sectors intersect directly with ASHRAE expertise.
During the coming year, I would therefore like us to develop stronger relationships with industry bodies, professional organisations, universities, employers and other communities across the Irish built environment.
That includes exploring partnerships, collaborative technical events and appropriate sponsorship opportunities that can expand the reach and impact of the Chapter.
Sharing more of what ASHRAE Ireland does
Another relatively simple priority is communication.
Extraordinary voluntary work takes place across ASHRAE, but we do not always tell the story particularly well.
During the coming year, I would like us to make much greater use of our website, LinkedIn and other communications channels to share technical knowledge, recognise our volunteers, showcase our members and highlight opportunities to participate.
This thought-leadership area of the ASHRAE Ireland website will be part of that effort.
I hope it becomes somewhere our members and invited contributors can share ideas, technical perspectives, conference reports and observations about developments affecting the built environment.
I will also use it periodically to report back from my own ASHRAE activities and, importantly, to explain how the knowledge and relationships developed internationally can benefit our Chapter here in Ireland.
Connecting Ireland to the wider ASHRAE community
One of ASHRAE’s greatest strengths is the ability to connect local Chapters into a genuinely international organisation.
Ireland forms part of ASHRAE Region XIV, giving us valuable relationships with Chapters and colleagues throughout Europe.
At Society level, Irish members also have opportunities to participate in Technical Committees, Standards Project Committees, research initiatives and other programmes involving experts from around the world.
I want us to take greater advantage of those connections — while also ensuring that the considerable expertise that exists in Ireland is represented internationally.
The flow of knowledge should work in both directions.
An invitation
A Presidency is only one year, and an organisation such as ASHRAE is built not by any individual President but by its members and volunteers.
So my invitation for 2026–27 is straightforward.
If you are already involved in ASHRAE Ireland, get involved a little more.
Attend an event. Bring a colleague. Mentor a younger engineer. Suggest a speaker. Join a committee. Share an idea.
And if you work in engineering, building services, architecture, construction, research, manufacturing, data centres, life sciences, indoor environmental quality or another part of the built environment and have not yet engaged with ASHRAE, come and meet us.
I am enormously looking forward to the year ahead and to working with our Board of Governors, committee chairs, members, students, young engineers, industry partners and colleagues across Region XIV and the wider Society.
There is a tremendous amount we can achieve together.
Healthy Buildings. Stronger Community. Greater Impact.
That is the ambition I would like us to carry into the year ahead.
About the Author
Dr John McKeon is President of ASHRAE Ireland for 2026–27 and contributes to the Chapter’s thought leadership on indoor environmental quality, healthy buildings and the relationship between the built environment and human health.
A medical doctor by training, John graduated from Trinity College Dublin and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Following his clinical career, he moved into entrepreneurship and innovation, founding the iAIR Group and Airmid Healthgroup, a contract biomedical research organisation specialising in the science of indoor air and healthy indoor environments. He is Principal of the iAIR Institute and Medical Director of Airmid Healthgroup.
John serves on the ASHRAE Environmental Health Committee and contributes to the ASHRAE Indoor Environmental Quality Center of Excellence. His wider industry involvement includes the International WELL Building Institute, World Filtration Institute, National Association of Home Builders’ Healthy Home Subcommittee and the ISIAQ Innovation Task Force.
His work focuses on bringing medicine, engineering, building science and innovation together to support healthier, more people-centred indoor environments.