Professor Khellil Sefiane

Chair of Thermophysical Engineering and Head of Research Institute

Email: 

Telephone: 

+44(0)131 6504873

Location: 

2.2011 James Clerk Maxwell Building

Personal Page: 

Engineering Discipline: 

  • Chemical Engineering

Research Institute: 

  • Multiscale Thermofluids

Research Theme: 

  • Multiphase flows, interfaces and phase change from nano- to macro-scales

Biography: 

Professor Khellil Sefiane, PhD, HDR, FRSC and FInstP is a Professor and chair of Thermo-Physical Engineering in the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh (https://www.ed.ac.uk/), Scotland, United Kingdom. He was the Head of the research Institute for Multiscale Thermofluids (IMT), 2018-2024 and Heat of the Institute for Materials and Processes (IMP) from 2012-2015 at the University of Edinburgh. Professor Sefiane is the Vice-Chair of the UK National Heat Transfer Committee, https://www.uknhtc.org/. Professor Sefiane is the UK delegate on the Scientific Council of the Intenational Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer, https://www.ichmt.org/. He also represents the UK on the European Thermal Committee, EUROTHERM, http://www.eurothermcommittee.eu/. He was associate editor for the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Elsevier (2017-2024) and has been associate editor for the International Journal of Multiphase Flows and the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer.

He held numerous honorary appointments in international institutions including an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto, Canada (2008-2014), Visiting Professor at Kyushu University, Japan (2015) and WPI -World Premier International Professor at the International Centre for Carbon Neutral Energy Research (I2CNER) at Kyushu in Japan (2015-2019), honorary Professor at Tsinghua University in China (2022-2025), Extraordinary Professor at Pretoria University, South Africa (2019) and visiting Professor at Universite Paris-Saclay, France (2020 and 2025). He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP) and holds an ExxonMobil fellowship and a Global Research Award, both awarded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, London. Professor Sefiane has been research active for the last 28 years in various areas related to multiphase flows, heat transfer,  microfluidics, interfacial phenomena and phase change. He has published more than a 250 journal papers in international journals and was co-editor of the textbook Drying of Complex Fluid Drops: Fundamentals and Applications, published by the Royal society of Chemistry (RSC), 2022, https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/ebook/978-1-78801-790-9. He has been recipient of the prestigious Institute of Physics (IoP) award (2009), the Global Research Award by the Royal Academy of Engineering, London (2011) and the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Award in 2014 and the David R. Kenning Award in 2024. Professor Sefiane is member of numerous international scientific committees of experts in heat transfer and multiphase flows (ICHMT, EUROTHERM, Chair of the Nusselt-Reynolds, Nu-Re Prize and chair of the David B.R. Kenning award committee) and member of the international Board of the Nukiyama Memorial Award (NMA) awarded by the Heat Transfer Society of Japan (HTSJ). Prof. Sefiane taught undergraduate and graduate students at universities in UK, France, Canada, Japan and China. He has been recipient of research grants from the UK research Council (EPSRC), the British Royal Society (RS), the European Union (EU), the European Space Agency (ESA) and industry.

Academic Qualifications: 

  • M.Sc., PhD in Chemical Engineering, habil. HDR in Engineering
  • Fellow of the Institute of Physics, FInsP, 2012, UK.
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, FRSC, 2011, UK.
  • ExxonMobil Fellow, awarded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, London, 2000, UK.
  • Vice-chair of the UK National Heat Transfer Committee, https://www.uknhtc.org
  • Deputy Chair of the Nusselt-Reynolds (Nu-Re) international prize, 2018-2024
  • Chair of the Nusselt-Reynolds (Nu-Re) international prize, 2024-2027
  • UK representative on the EUROTHERM European committee, http://www.eurothermcommittee.eu/
  • UK representative on the Scientific Council of the Intenational Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer, https://www.ichmt.org/
  • UK Editor for the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (IJHMT) (2017-2024), Elsevier
  • World Premier International (WPI) Professor, International Institute for Carbon Neutral Energy Research (WPI-I2CNER), https://i2cner.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en/, 2015-2022, Kyushu University, Japan.
  • Corresponding member of the European Academy of Sciences Arts and Literature.
  • Adjunct Professor, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, University   of Toronto, 2008-2014, Canada.
  • Honorary Professor, Kyushu University, 2015, Japan.
  • Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), 2011, Japan.
  • Honorary Professor, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 2022-2025, China.
  • Visinting Professor, Univeriste Paris-Saclay, Paris, 2020 and 2024, France.
  • Visiting Professor at Université Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens (2008), Université de Valenciennes (2009, 2011), École Normale Supérieure- Cachan (2014, 2015), École nationale supérieure d'Arts et Métiers (ENSAM), 2023, France.
  • Visiting Professor, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, 2015-2017, UK.
  • Extraordinary Professor, Pretoria University, 2020, South Africa.
  • Guest Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 2019, China.
  • Associate Editor, International Journal of Multiphase Flows, Elsevier, 2015-2016.
  • Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, 2014-2015
  • Global research award, Royal Academy of Engineering, London, 2011. UK.
  • Chair of the David B.R. Kenning award committee, UK, https://www.uknhtc.org/david-kenning-award
  • Member of the Board of the Nukiyama Memorial Award (NMA) awarded by the Heat Transfer Society of Japan (HTSJ). 2024-2026.
  • Laboratory and Group web page

Teaching: 

  • Separation Processes 5, 4th and 5th year.
  • Work Visits (Chemistry and Processes 2), 2nd year.
  • Chemical Engineering Design 4, 4th year.

Research Interests: 

Two phase flows and heat transfer

You can watch this video on Media Hopperor on YouTube.

Specialities: 

  • Interfacial processes and capillary phenomena
  • Multiphase flows and microscale heat transfer
  • Wetting and phase change phenomena
  • Microfluidics and thermal management of microsystems