Alstan is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto where he focuses his efforts on the design of buildings and cities with emphases on human comfort, performance simulation, and low-energy design strategies. He believes that through data-driven processes, designers can create comfortable built environments that will support social interaction, require less energy, and last longer before being razed. Alstan co-creates the popular DIVA tool for calculating the daylighting and energy performance of buildings and cities and actively develops new software tools as part of his research.

Before joining the University of Toronto, Alstan taught sustainable design to the first four graduating classes at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. He also co-founded Mapdwell, a technology company dedicated to providing information to homeowners about the renewable energy potential of their rooftops. Alstan holds Bachelor’s (Georgia Tech) and Master’s (University of Pennsylvania) degrees in architecture and a PhD in Building Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.