Nastaran Shishegar, LEED GA, WELL AP, is a Ph.D. student at the Illinois School of Architecture, UIUC. Her curiosity about the research domains in the broad field of sustainability and concentrates on the link that connects built environments to people’s quality of life.

Her current research specifically focuses on the associations of the lighting design and occupants’ health and well-being. Recently, she has been awarded a prestigious grant from the McClung Lighting Research Foundation to study the effects of various lighting characteristics such as intensity, spectrum, timing, and duration of exposure on older adults’ sleep quality, cognitive performance, mood, and quality of life. The final aim of this study is to design a 24-hour lighting schedule that enhances older adults’ overall health and well-being.

Nastaran earned her Master of Architecture degree with technology and performance concentration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in architectural engineering and a Master of Science in residential architectural engineering from IUST. In her extensive professional experience, Nastaran has been involved in many national and international projects, encompassing Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Lighting Design and worked with great design teams at AKS, Wight and Co., HOK, and Forum Studio.