Prateek Shrestha is 5th year PhD candidate in Prof. Shelly Miller’s lab. This research group specializes in analyzing various aspects of indoor air quality inside buildings, residences and other built environments. Prateek’s research focuses in assessing the indoor air quality impacts of energy efficiency retrofits made in existing buildings. Using various air sampling instruments, surveys and different tests in hundreds of homes across Denver, Boulder, Longmont, Loveland and Fort Collins areas of Colorado, he is researching about indoor pollutants that could potentially accumulate in poorly vented homes, and situations that could aggravate occupant exposure to indoor air contaminants which are often overlooked during energy efficiency retrofits in buildings.

Before pursuing with graduate school at CU, Prateek got his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Kathmandu, Nepal from Tribhuvan University-Institute of Engineering (Pulchowk Campus). Having worked in both research and academia before coming to CU, he brings perspectives and knowledge from the Himalayan nation in practical applications of science and engineering in the developing world. At CU, he has also worked with the design team of Engineers Without Borders (Nepal), worked as the advisor of Nepalese Student Association, and also as an instructor for an NSF funded project in teaching Native American students from Fort Peck, Oglala Lakota and Haskell colleges about sustainable building design. Prateek is passionate about renewable energy and environmental sustainability, and enjoys traveling, hiking, biking, amateur drone projects, sketching, painting, sculpture, musical instruments and culinary arts as his hobby.