Glacian Team | Decades of Federally Funded Research in Data Center Cooling Optimization

About Us

Glacian’s team is built on more than a decade of cutting-edge research in data-center cooling, supported by over $8 million in competitive research grant from government and private funders. Our experts have developed many of the foundational models, optimization algorithms and control intelligence that now shape the cooling industry. Beyond research, our strength also lies in our ability to convert these research breakthroughs into reliable, commercial-grade solutions for mission-critical data-center environments.

Meet Founders

CTO & Co-founder

Wangda Zuo, PhD

Dr. Zuo is a Professor at Penn State and a joint appointee at U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratory of the Rockies. A Fellow of ASHRAE and IBPSA, he is internationally recognized for his leadership in data center cooling and building energy modeling. His award-winning innovations – including the 2025 IBPSA Innovative Application Award – have led to real-world deployments and significant energy saving.

Dr. Zuo has led nearly 40 funded R&D projects with $19 million grants from NSF, DOE, DOD, and ASHRAE, supervised 20+ Ph.D. students, and published 170+ peer-reviewed papers. He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University and worked as a Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

CEO and Co-founder

Jie Zhao, PhD

Dr. Jie Zhao is a serial entrepreneur and startup veteran and interdisciplinary team leader. With over 15 years of experience translating science and technology into practical commercial solutions. He spent 10 years at Delos, a New York proptech startup, from pre-revenue to unicorn, as Executive Vice President, leading commercialization of science-driven building technologies into scalable and recurring-revenue platforms.

He taught at the University of Pennsylvania, worked at Lutron Electronics, one of the leading smart building companies in the world, and has been featured in major media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CBS News, and the Money Magazine. He holds a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University.