Directed by Dr. Bharat Venkat, the UCLA Heat Lab is an interdisciplinary effort to study the experience of thermal inequality.

While often ignored, heat affects all of us throughout every moment of every day and our relationship to heat is defined by many factors. Our biology, built environment, occupation, society, psychology, and more all influence how an individual experiences heat. These factors put different communities at especially high risk for heat-related illnesses.

Since the 1950’s, the frequency, intensity, and duration of heat waves –and heat wave season– has been increasing globally.

The effects of extreme heat include: discomfort, illness, injury, cognitive decline, crop damage, property damage, death or injury to livestock, reduced productivity, increased wildfires, increased power use and power outages, and exacerbated effects of drought.

Furthermore, heat waves result in more deaths per year than any other natural disaster. Heat is a multi-sited, multi-scalar, and multi-disciplinary problem.

Therefore, we at Heat Lab attempt to explore heat through our interdisciplinary research projects under the mentorship of Dr. Bharat Venkat.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• Encouraging future generations to pursue curiosities about science and justice within their communities
• How contemporary and historical policy affects people’s experiences of heat today
• How foodstuffs interact with experiences of heat through cycles of cultivation, transportation, and consumption
• How heat and disability intersect through a physiological and sociological lens
• Encouraging students and community members to analyze how their communities are impacted by heat and the environment, and how they can make an influence
• Investigating how heat and climate change affect incarcerated populations and finding potential solutions within an abolitionist framework.