Professor, Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada Hashem Akbari received his Ph.D. of Nuclear Engineering at University of California, Berkeley in 1979. In 2009, he joined the Concordia University in Concordia University, Montreal, Canada where he has established a comprehensive laboratory to measure solar spectral reflectance and thermal emittance of common construction materials is established.[1] Prior to joining the Concordia University, he was a senior scientist and the leader of the Heat Island Group at the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), University of California (from 1983 to 2009). As the founding leader of the Heat Island group, he has conceived, led, and supervised work in the following areas: heat-island quantification and mitigation, novel techniques in the analysis of energy use in buildings and industry, energy efficiency in buildings and industry─both in the United States and abroad. Dr. Akbari’s contribution on global Urban Heat Island (UHI) study could be highlighted with initiating the UHI group in LBNL, initiating the study of cool roofs for UHI mitigation, and initiating researches of quantifying the relationship between building reflectivity and CO2 emission, organizing the U.S. Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) and helping to found the Global Cool Cities Alliance (GCCA).