ATLANTA — ASHRAE has announced its IAQ 2020 Conference in Athens, Greece, will be postponed until Sept. 13-15, 2021. A new call for papers also has been announced for the conference. The deadline for abstract submissions is Dec. 21.

Organized by ASHRAE and the Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre (AIVC), the theme of the conference, “Indoor Environmental Quality Performance Approaches,” focuses on the metrics, systems, sensors, and norms necessary to implement performance approaches.

“Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) has been the core of ASHRAE'S IAQ series of conferences for the past 30 years," said Max Sherman, co-chair of IAQ 2020. "This conference has expanded from only covering indoor air quality concerns to exploring indoor environmental quality which includes indoor air pollution, thermal conditions, acoustics, illumination, and their interactions. The COVID-19 crises has required us to hold IAQ2020 one year later but allowed us to expand the scope further to include IAQ in a post-COVID world."

In addition to the original conference topics, the conference steering committee is seeking papers related to the scientific challenges that the world faces following the COVID-19 pandemic, which include:

•           The role of ventilation and building airtightness in epidemic preparedness;

•           Filtration and disinfectant options to control COVID-19;

•           Face-covering impacts on indoor air quality; and

•           HVAC and IEQ in a post-COVID world.

Authors have the option to submit either a conference paper or an extended abstract and to state their preference for either an oral or poster presentation. Submissions are due Dec. 21, 2020. If accepted, complete manuscript submissions are due April 19, 2021. For more information, visit www.ashrae.org/IAQ2020.