The team was awarded the title of National Huang Danian-style Team in Underground Space Environment by the Ministry of Education of China. Professor Li Angui, who is leading the team, has been active in underground space environment and advanced ventilation areas for over thirty years. Professor Li is also the Director of International Joint Laboratory on Low Carbon Built Environment, Ministry of Education of China, the Chair of the National First-Class Major (Specialty) of Built Environment and Energy Engineering at Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology. Professor Li was the Visiting Professor and the Royal Society K.C. Wong Fellow at Cardiff University, UK (2000-2003), Visiting Professor of Nihon University, Japan in 2005, and Senior Research Fellow at Purdue University, USA (2009).
The team mainly focuses two research directions.
1. Low Carbon Creation of Normal Environments: Focusing on Attachment Ventilation theory and low-carbon transmission and distribution technologies to facilitate the low-carbon development of the built environment.
2. Personnel Safety Assurance in Catastrophic Environments: Focusing on air safety theory and the research and development of key equipment to improve the safety assurance ability in special environments.
The team has led more than 100 research projects including the EU project, the National Natural Science Foundation projects and the National Science and Technology Major Projects. The team has published more than 300 academic papers and 9 books including Attachment Ventilation Theory, of which about 200 papers were indexed by SCI. Additionally, the team has authorized more than 90 invention patents.The relevant theories and design methods have successfully solved the environment problems of a series of underground and enclosed large-volume spaces such as floating nuclear power plants, Xiong'an High-Speed Railway Station, Xi'an T5 Terminal Buildings and Zhengzhou Metro Stations, providing key technical support for the construction of national major projects. Attachment Ventilation Theory and Technology have been included in the 2025 National Catalog of Key Promoted Low-Carbon Technologies jointly issued by five ministries and commissions. At present, the team is undertaking the underground space environment project for the mega hydropower station.
As the first completer, Professor Li has received 2 National Technology Invention Awards of China. He was also awarded WSSET Innovation Award by the World Society of Sustainable Energy Technologies in 2019.
