Researchers at the University of Birmingham

Dr Suzanne Bartington leads interdisciplinary research and policy impact focussed activities at the intersect of air quality, climate change and health.

Suzanne has developed specific interests in developing clean air and climate solutions which deliver co-benefits for public health and equity. In her role as UK Clean Air Championshe works closely with policymakers, commercial and ...

Professor Lee Chapman’s research interests are at the interface of climatology and engineering investigating the impact of weather and climate on the built environment; an important research area given the ever-increasing concentration (and vulnerability) of the population and critical infrastructure in urban areas. This covers a range of topics and sub-disciplines including ...

Emma leads exciting interdisciplinary research at the intersection of infrastructure, the built environment and green infrastructure. She currently holds an EPSRC Fellowship examining how Nature Based Solutions can deliver infrastructure resilience to extreme weather and climate change. Emma also leads and contributes to a range of projects in the fields of transport, infrastructure resilience, ...

Professor Gauci investigates how the biosphere interacts with the atmosphere and he explores questions relating to how these interactions respond to various drivers of global change.

Dr Rebekah Lucas is an integrative physiologist who is interested in how exercise and environmental medicine translates to clinical medicine and public health. Her research examines human tolerance and adaptation to physical and environmental stressors, with a particular focus on thermal vascular physiology.

Dr Yuli Shan is an expert in Climate Change and Sustainable Transitions. His interdisciplinary research aims to reveal how human activities affect global and regional climate change. He also seeks alternative low-carbon approaches towards the achievement of climate targets and a net-zero emission society. 

He is a Global Highly Cited Researcher (since 2020) and a Fellow of Royal ...

William Bloss is an atmospheric scientist, specialising in air pollution and atmospheric chemistry.  His research applies a combination of laboratory studies, field measurements and numerical models to understand the causes of poor air quality, and support development of effective policy measures to protect human and environmental health.  Recent work has ranged from Clean Air Science ...

Adriane Esquivel Muelbert investigates how forests respond to different global change forces and what the implications of these responses are on biodiversity and global biogeochemical cycles. Her work demonstrates the importance of drought tolerance in shaping diversity and composition across Neotropical tree communities and provides evidence that Amazonian forests are changing as a ...

Dr Ruth Geen is an atmospheric dynamicist. Her research aims to increase confidence in projections of future regional climate by building simple, conceptual pictures of the large-scale circulations governing climate phenomena.

James is a personable and enthusiastic research fellow in Health Economics at the University of Birmingham.

James recently passed his PhD VIVA, entitled “An exploration of the use of decision analytic modelling in low back pain and sciatica”.  Accordingly, he is interested in the novel application of decision modelling in a variety of research areas, such air pollution and ...

David is a physical geographer with interdisciplinary research interests focusing on three complementary themes within hydroclimatology (interface between hydrology-climatology): (1) hydroclimatological processes within alpine, Arctic, mountain and glacierized river basins; (2) climate and river flow regimes; and (3) river energy budget and water temperature dynamics. He has cross-cutting ...

Sue Jowett is a Professor in the Health Economics Unit (HEU) with an extensive portfolio of applied research concerning trial and model-based economic evaluations in chronic diseases. Sue also oversees health economics research within studies undertaken by Primary Care researchers in the School of Medicine at Keele University, as part of a formal collaboration between the HEU and Keele. ...

Professor Dr Stefan Krause is Professor of Ecohydrology and Biogeochemistry in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences. His interdisciplinary research group on coupled groundwater and surface water systems investigates the multifaceted impacts of global environmental change on hydrological fluxes, biogeochemical cycling and contaminant transport, and ecohydrological ...

Professor Gregor Leckebusch is a leading expert in natural science research on meteorological and climatological extreme events and related impacts. His work is dedicated to natural variability and anthropogenic changes in extreme events like cyclones and storms and the relation to relevant risk assessments. Focus of his actual research is a better understanding of physical processes in the ...

Originally from Spain, Dr Estrella Luna-Diez is a plant pathologist working in the UK since early 2009. Her work is aimed towards plant protection and biosecurity. Dr Luna-Diez studies the sophisticated immune system of plants in order to exploit their resistance capacity to a maximum.

Iseult Lynch is an Associate Editor for Environmental Science: Nano, and Deputy director for the Facility for Environmental Nanomaterials Analysis and Characterisation (FENAC) at the University of Birmingham.  Her research focuses on the environmental interactions of nanoparticles and nanostructured surfaces with biological entities from macromolecules to organisms.

She has a very ...

Rob MacKenzie is an atmospheric scientist with a particular interest in how plants affect air composition. Watch a video of him describing one aspect of his research in 60 seconds by clicking on the play icon above. 

As a result of a £15M grant, the University of Birmingham has set up the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR), of which Rob is delighted to be ...

Nigel Maxted is Professor of Plant Genetic Conservation, with specific expertise in in situ and ex situ conservation related to crops, their wild relative and other socio-economically important plants.

Nigel has led National, European and International crop, their wild relative and other socio-economically important plant conservation projects with funding from international (FAO, GEF, Bioversity ...

Luisa's mission is to improve environmental health by pushing the boundaries of research and innovation. She applies high throughput sequencing technologies and AI to understand the impact of environmental change on freshwater ecosystems. Luisa works with ghost DNA and resurrected crustaceans to identify the causes of biodiversity loss and the mechanisms of evolution that allow species to persist.

Gavin is a Research Fellow specialising in observational studies in healthcare. He is particularly interested in linkage studies, secondary care service utilisation, cohort studies and the use of spatial data in health research.  He also works as a front-line advisor in the NIHR-funded Research Support Service Hub delivered by University of Birmingham and Partners, where he provides ...

After a number of years as a Market Researcher in the private sector, Jenny has spent the last ten years in public sector research roles, latterly as a public health research specialist. Her current role as Knowledge Exchange Facilitator combines working in a local authority public health information team, with researching epidemiology and health geography in the Institute of Applied Health ...

Dr Martin Widmann is a climate scientist. His current main research area is regional climate change, in particular the development and validation of statistical downscaling methods. He also studies past climates; the main activity in this field is the development of data assimilation methods to combine climate simulations with empirical knowledge from proxy data.

Paul Anderson is Professor of Strategic Elements and Materials Sustainability and the Co-Director of the Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements and Critical Materials.

Paul has published close to 100 research papers in scientific journals as well as reviews, book chapters and patents in the fields of porous framework materials, nanowires and nanoparticles, and hydrogen storage materials. He ...

Dr David Boardman is a Head of Strategic Projects for the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences and Deputy Director of the Birmingham Energy Institute (BEI).

Whilst  developing his career at Birmingham he led the Birmingham team that helped to deliver the national Mini-Waste Faraday Partnership, the national Waste Minimisation Knowledge Transfer Network and the national Environmental ...

Professor Yulong Ding is the founding Chamberlain Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham and director of Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage. His current research covers both fundamental (multiphase transport phenomena across length scales) and applied (new energy conversion and storage technologies) aspects.

He invented liquid air energy storage technology and led the ...

Dr. Dilum Dissanayake is an experienced academic with particular interest in transport planning and human Geography. Her passion for educating STEM careers means that she devotes time in developing research careers at Postdoctoral, PhD, as well as Postgraduate and Undergraduate degree levels. Dr Dissanayake’s ambition is to further advance knowledge and skills in transport planning and data ...

Professor Martin Freer is a nuclear physicist, and Director of the Birmingham Energy Institute  (BEI) at the University of Birmingham. He is also Director of the Energy Research Accelerator (ERA), which comprises eight internationally-renowned Midlands universities which are part of the Midlands Innovation partnership, together with the British Geological Survey.

Martin is former ...

Gavin Harper is a Research Fellow on the Met4Tech UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre for Technology Metals, previously he was a  Faraday Institution Research Fellow on the ReLiB (Recycling and Reuse of Lithium Ion Batteries) at the University of Birmingham. 

His research currently concerns the circular economy of technology metals, with a particular focus on the ...

An award-winning technology developer (Liquid Air Energy Storage/Highview Power and the Dearman Engine), Toby leads the University's Birmingham Energy Institute’s activity around the Cold Economy and Clean Cooling and Cold-chains (for food and vaccines /pharma) and is recognised as one of the main architects of a growing UK and International understanding and realisation of the need for ...

Professor Jonathan Radcliffe is a Professor in Energy Systems and Policy, leading an interdisciplinary research team. His research interests are in energy system technology, policy and innovation, in particular the role of energy storage. He also leads the Resilient Cities theme of the Institute for Global Innovation, working with colleagues across the university to investigate the drivers of ...

Robert Steinberger-Wilckens is Professor for Fuel Cell and Hydrogen research in Chemical Engineering. He is director of the research Fuel Cell and Hydrogen group and the Centre for Doctoral Training Fuel Cells and their Fuels, which is run by the universities of Birmingham, Nottingham, and Loughborough, Imperial College, and University College of London.

He works and has worked in many areas ...

Professor Allan Walton has expertise in processing of permanent magnetic materials, solid state hydrogen storage materials, hydrogen processing of materials, coating technologies, hydrogen purification membranes and recycling of rare earth materials.  Allan is Professor of Critical and Magnetic Materials and is the ex-chair of the UK Magnetics Society.

He has published over 35 papers in ...

Stuart Hillmansen is a Professor in Railway Traction Systems and Head of the Traction Research Group within the School of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering.

The group are part of the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education.

Stuart has over 50 research publications in scientific journals, conferences, and publically available reports. He has a wide teaching ...

Dr David Jaroszweski researches the impacts of weather and potential impacts of climate change on transport systems. This research adopts a multidisciplinary approach and includes assessing the current relationships between weather and transport failure, the potential impact of climate change and the effect that concurrent socio-economic change may have on the future resilience of transport ...

Clive is Professor of Railway Systems and Deputy Head of the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham.  He is Director of the University’s Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education, which has over 180 researchers. He works extensively with the railway industry and academia in Britain and overseas. 

Clive leads a broad portfolio of research aimed at ...

Nana's professional and research interests relate to sustainability policy and governance frameworks required to transition towards a responsible and sustainable future. This includes environmental sustainability issues, e.g. ambient air pollution and their impact on public health in Low-Medium Income Countries (LMICs).

His current problem-solving oriented research focuses on Circular Economy, ...

Professor Aleksandra Cavoski’s research interests are in the field of environmental law and EU law, including certain aspects of public international law. Her research agenda is inter-disciplinary and explores the intersection of law and other disciplines, in particular politics, science, public policy and language. Aleksandra is the College of Arts and Law Director of Global ...

Hisham Farag is Professor of Finance and Director of Research at Birmingham Business School. He is also the Founding Director of the Sustainable Financial Innovation Research Centre (SFIC).

Fiona's interests and experience focus on natural resource governance and management in developing country settings, particularly within inland fisheries and coastal locations in East and Southern Africa, and on exploring the links between poverty and the environment.

Nicole Metje is the Head of Enterprise, Engagement and Impact and Head of the Power and Infrastructure Research Group within the School of Engineering, and the Director for the UKCRIC National Buried Infrastructure Facility at Birmingham.

Nicole is an international leader in the development and application of sensors for (buried) infrastructure assessment and monitoring. She ...