This work investigates inverse boundary design for radiative heat transfer applied to human thermal environment. The problem consists in finding the temperatures of certain surfaces in 2. complex configuration around the human being that satisfy both the temperature and the heat flux prescribed on his body. Such a mathematical procedure is called inverse modeling which is described by an ill-conditioned system of linear equations based on the absorption factors method. The solution is obtained by regularizing the system of equations by the Tikhonov method. As a result we obtain optimized conditions for a complex human thermal system. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.