The Institute is an interdisciplinary research center for the study of the thermal interaction of people and their surroundings. It is one of the few centers in the world with the controlled environmental chambers and supporting instrumentation necessary to study the aspect of human comfort. IER research deals with thermal comfort, thermal stress, clothing systems, indoor environmental engineering, and related topics.

The Institute is part of the Kansas State University College of Engineering. It works in cooperation with many different academic departments throughout the university. This cooperation includes the use of facilities not available at the Institute and, more importantly, it includes the ability to draw upon the faculty and students of these departments. This structure provides a great deal of flexibility, making it practical to bring together the interdisciplinary teams needed for our research programs and allowing us to provide a comprehensive approach to thermal-environmental research.

©2006 Institute for Environmental Research