Ute Besenecker

Associate Professor and Head of the Lighting Design Division at KTH Architecture.

Ute Besenecker is a design researcher and educator focusing on the impact of lighting on human perception, behavior and wellbeing in spatial environments. Her special interest is facilitating interdisciplinary research collaborations in architecture, lighting design, art, engineering, and the sciences to connect research, education, and practice.

Ute’s background spans academic human factors research as well as professional practice in lighting design, policy development, product management, and architecture. She holds a PhD in Architectural Sciences from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) as well as Master’s Degrees in Lighting from the Lighting Research Center at RPI, USA, and in Architecture and Design from Columbia University, USA, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany, and Polytechnico di Milano, Italy.

Current academic activities in architecture and lighting design include teaching and supervision in related Master and Doctoral programs at KTH as well as grant-funded research projects related to indoor and outdoor lighting design.

Ute is a part of the editorial team for LEUKOS, the journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) as an Associate Editor, and member of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), the International Commission on Illumination (CIE), and the IES.

In addition, she is founding member of the Light Collaboration Network for Research and Education (LCN), and part of the NAVET working group, a Stockholm hub to navigate between art, technology, and design.

Research project and consortium participations include:

• 2021-2025 "NorDark: Unconventional methods to inform sustainable design - Mediating the needs of people and nature in Nordic after-dark environments" (Supported by NordForsk/ Formas)
• 2020-2024 "LiSE: A learning-environment testbed to evaluate benefits for lighting beyond retrofits" (Supported by Energimyndigheten/ Bertil och Britt Svenssons Stiftelse)
• 2021 "Luminous Colour Toolbox" (Supported by NAVET)
• since 2020 "The Light Collaboration Network for Research and Education" (Supported by Bertil och Britt Svenssons Stiftelse)
• 2019-2021 "Light4Health" (Supported by Erasmus+)