Dr Soroosh Sharifi BSc, MSc, PhD

Dr Soroosh Sharifi

Department of Civil Engineering
Lecturer in Water Engineering
Head of Education

Contact details

Address
Civil Engineering
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Sharifi is a Lecturer in Water Engineering in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham. In the last 10 years, he has worked on several research projects in the areas of Hydrology, Hydraulics and Environmental Engineering.

Dr Sharifi’s primary research interests lie in the area of river and environmental hydraulics, rainfall-runoff modelling, multi-objective optimization and inverse modelling. He is particularly interested in how physical and data modeling can be coupled to better understand the underlying physics of hydro-environmental processes. A great deal of his research is focused on the application of machine learning and evolutionary computation methods in water sciences.

Dr Sharifi is also a part of the Birmingham Plastics Network, an interdisciplinary team of more than 40 academics working together to shape the fate and sustainable future of plastics.  This unique team brings together chemists, environmental scientists, engineers, philosophers, linguists, economists, artists, writers, lawyers, and experts in many other fields, to holistically address the global plastics problem.

Qualifications

Lecturer in Water Engineering

  • PhD in Civil Engineering, University of Birmingham, 2009
  • MSc in Hydraulic Structures, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, 2006
  • BSc in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, 2003

Biography

Dr Sharifi holds a BSc in Civil and Environmental Engineering (2003) and an MSc in Hydraulic Structures (2003) from Ferdowsi University of Masshhad. His PhD in Civil Engineering was undertaken at the University of Birmingham researching Applications of Evolutionary Computation in Open Channel Flow (2009). After completing his PhD studies he moved to the United States. Between 2010-13, Dr Sharifi was a post-doctoral scholar at the Catholic University of America, where he was working on several water and environment-related research projects. In September 2013 he returned to the University of Birmingham as a Lecturer in Civil Engineering.

In the last 10 years, Dr Sharifi has been conducting research on various topics in the field of Water and Environmental Engineering. He is interested in the following topics:

  • Hydro-Informatics and Evolutionary Computation
  • Inverse modeling
  • Bayesian and Stochastic Modeling
  • Environmental and Computational Hydraulics
  • Experimental River Mechanics
  • Stormwater Contaminant Fate and Transport
  • Best Management Practice Spatial and Cost Optimization
  • Contaminant Source Identification
  • Computer Models of Watershed Hydrology

Teaching

Current Teaching Programmes

  • Water Resources Technology and Management Masters/MSc
    • Hydrology
    • Flooding and Water Resource Management
    • Groundwater Engineering
  • Civil Engineering MEng/BSc
    • Civil Engineering research projects
    • Guided research
    • Industrial research

Research

Current: 

  • Probabilistic Modelling and Design of Activated Sludge Processes
  • Study of the Tidal Section of the River Severn Using Fluvial Acoustic Tomography

Past:

  • Contaminant Source Apportionment in Urban Storm Runoff
  • Uncertainty Analysis in Ground Water Age Dating
  • Mechanistic Modeling of Highway Pollution Wash-off and Build-up
  • Calibration of Hydrodynamic Models
  • Evaluating Time of Concentration Equations

Publications

Selected Journal Publications

Sharifi, S., Murthy S., Takaks, I., Massoudieh, A. (2014) Probabilistic Parameter Estimation of Activated Sludge Processes using Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Water Research, 50:254-266:

Massoudieh, A., Visser, A., Sharifi, S. andBroers, H.P (2013) A Bayesian modeling approach for estimation of a shape-free groundwater age distribution using multiple tracers, Applied Geochemistry

Sharifi, S. Haghshenas, M.M., Deksissa, T., Green, P and Massoudieh, A. (2013) Stormwater Pollution Source Identification in Washington DC using Bayesian Chemical Mass Balance Modeling, Journal of Environmental Engineering

Razaz, M., Kawanisi, K., Nistor, I. and Sharifi, S. (2013)An acoustic travel time method for continuous velocity monitoring in shallow tidal streams, Water Resources Research, 49(8):4885-4899, doi: 10.1002/wrcr.20375

Sharifi, S., Kayhanian, M. and Massoudieh, A. (2012) Fate and Transport Modeling of Urban Highway Contaminants by a Multi-Objective Evolutionary Method, ASCE, Urban Water Journal doi:10.1080/1573062X.2013.790979 (in-print)

Massudieh, A., Sharifi, S., Solomon, D.K. (2012) Bayesian Evaluation of Groundwater Age Distribution Using Radio-Active Tracers and Anthropogenic Chemicals, Water Resources Research , 48(9) doi:10.1029/2012WR01181

Sharifi, S. Massoudieh, A. (2012) A Novel Hybrid Mechanistic-Data-Driven Model Identification Framework Using NSGA-II, Journal of Hydroinformatics, 14(3): 697-715, doi:10.2166/hydro.2012.026.

Sharifi, S., Hosseini, S.M. (2011) Methodology for identifying the best equations for estimating the time of concentration of watersheds in a particular region, ASCE Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering,137(11): 712-719, doi:10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0000373

Sharifi, S., Sterling, M. and Knight, D.W. (2011) Prediction of end-depth ratio in open channels using genetic programming, Journal of Hydroinformatics, 13(1):36-48 doi:10.2166/hydro.2010.087

Sharifi, S., Sterling, M. and Knight, D.W. (2011) Can the application of a multi objective evolutionary algorithm improve 2-D numerical modeling? CIWEM's Water and Environment Journal 25(2): 230-240 doi: 10.1111/j.1747-6593.2010.00223.x

Sharifi, S., Massoudieh, A., Kayhanian, M. (2011) A stochastic storm-water quality sizing method based on first flush characteristics. Journal of Water Environment Research, 83(11): 2025-2035 doi:10.2175/106143011X12989211.

Sterling, M., Sharifi, S. and Knight, D.W. (2010) The end depth ratio and principal component analysis? Proceedings of ICE, Water Management, 163(8): 425-430 doi: 10.1680/wama.900068

Sharifi, S., Knight, D.W. and Sterling, M. (2009) A novel application of a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm in open channel flow modelling. Journal of Hydroinformatics, 11(1): 31-50 doi:10.2166/hydro.2009.033

View all publications in research portal