Infrastructure and Environment

Dr Julio Bros-Williamson is a Chancellor's Fellow in Net-Zero Buildings at the School of Engineering (SoE), Institute of Infrastructure and Environment (IIE). He belongs to the Civil and Environmental Engineering Discipline, joining the school in September 2021 contributing to research, consultancy and teaching. His post is co-funded by the universities Estates department and SoE, contributing to the research and knowledge transfer of net-zero performance through building performance, in-situ envelope testing, retrofit of existing buildings and development of Living Labs and Digital Twins of specific university buildings.

Julio graduated with a PhD from Edinburgh Napier University in 2019 with a thesis that examined the impact of climate change and longitudinal envelope performance dilapidation on dwellings in Scotland. He is an architect, with 15 years of industry experience, who graduated from the School of Architecture at the Marista University in Mexico City. He holds an MSc in Energy Efficient Building (distinction) from Oxford Brookes University and obtained his professional certification in 2003 as a Chartered Architect (Mexico) accredited by the Secretaria de Educacion Publica, allowing him to become a member of the Mexican College of Architects. In 2010 he took up the role as a Director and contributing member of the Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA) as well as becoming its Treasurer from 2015 to 2018.

Julio is passionate about the low carbon performance of new and existing buildings, as wells as the building envelope performance and post occupancy evaluation of building users. He has experience in the implementation, optimisation and use indoor air quality sensors, in-situ building performance tools as well as digital skills using point cloud scanners (FARO) to capture interior and exterior space into a .gbxml digital format transferrable to BIM. Julio is a trained and certified Commercial Operations Pilot (drones) after undertaking a competency assessment programme. He has extensive skills in the use of dynamic thermal modelling to deliver simulations of building designs.

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Edinburgh Napier University, Climate change and building performance
• Master of Science (MSc), Oxford Brookes University, Energy Efficient Building
• Bachelor Honours Degree, BArch (Hons), Architecture, Universidad Marista (CUM DES), Mexico City, Mexico.

Membership of Professional Body

• Royal Institute of Architects Scotland (RIAS),  Affiliate membership
• Member of the Mexican College of Architects (State of Quintana Roo, Mexico)
• Chartered Architect status (Mexico) certified by the Secretaria de Educacion Publica (Spanish)

Current roles:

• Project manager & Board member for the Edinburgh Home Demonstration forum, Academic lead & representative: https://www.cs-ic.org/library/edinburgh-home-demonstrator/
• Co-Investigator of the Housing, Construction and Infrastructure (HCI) Skills Gateway board, part of the Edinburgh & South East Scotland City Region Deal, funded by the UK and Scottish Governments: https://www.hciskills.org/  

Previous roles:

• Postgraduate examining board member, Edinburgh Napier University
• Co-founder - Retrofit Scotland (http://www.retrofitscotland.org/)
• Steering Group member - International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) - Scotland Chapter
• Member - Scotland's 2020 Climate Group [Built Environment]
• Director & Treasurer - Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA)

Relevant training:

• Certified European Passive House Designer (CEPH), Passivhaus Institut, Darmstadt & University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.      
• Certificate of Practical Flight Assessment (Drone Pilot), Theoretical & Practical Knowledge / General Airmanship OFQUAL Certificate
• BREEAM Commercial assessor course, Building Research Establishment, Watford, UK.

Current roles:

• Semester 2: CIVE10031, BEng Civil Engineering Design Project 4

Previous experience:

• Undergraduate & Postgraduate lecturer (module leader) in Architectural Technology & Building Performance, Edinburgh Napier University
• Programme Leader of MSc Architectural Technology & Building Performance, Edinburgh Napier University
• Tutor Technology & Environment 2, Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), University of Edinburgh
• Undergraduate & Postgraduate lecturer in Interior Architecture, Edinburgh Napier University

• Building performance
• Sustainable building design
• Indoor air quality
• Sustainable standards
• Energy Efficiency in buildings

Dr Welch has a PhD in combustion and over 30 years of experience in fire research and teaching. He worked for a decade at BRE's Fire Research Station, including full-scale fire tests at BRE Cardington, before joining the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh in 2004. His research spans a range of topics related to computational simulation of fire and structures and has had involvement as first or second supervisor of around 30 graduated PhD students and served as examiner for over 30 more (including external examiner appointments). His teaching is related to fire safety engineering practice, providing a training in engineering approaches to applied problems, with critique and analysis of relevant regulations, codes and design principles. He was Programme Director for the one-year MSc Structural and Fire Safety Engineering (SAFE) 2008-23 (120+ graduates), and is a management board member for the International Master in Fire Safety Engineering (IMFSE), since 2010 (300+ graduates).  He was Discipline Programme Manager for Civil & Environmental Engineering 1/1/14-30/4/18 & 14/3-14/8/22 and is now Deputy Director of Students in the School of Engineering.

• BA hons Engineering, Cambridge University
• MSc Automotive product engineering, Cranfield University
• PhD (Computational modelling of diesel engine smoke emission), Cranfield University

AIFireE, AIOP (Combustion Physics subgroup), IAFSS newsletter associate editor

Deputy Director of Students, School of Engineering

Management Board, International Master in Fire Safety Engineering (IMFSE)

Programme Director, Structural & Fire Safety Engineering (SAFE) MSc

Current teaching: Fire Safety Engineering 5/MSc/IMFSE (formely Current Methods in Fire Safety Engineering/Fire Safety Engineering 4) (short-listed for "Outstanding course" via 22/23 EUSA Teaching awards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cslN1EdULWQ) Fire Science Laboratory 5/SAFE/IMFSE, Fire Safety Engineering 3

Previous teaching: Fire Safety Engineering Design Project 5, Fire Safety Engineering Analysis and Design 5/MSc, Quantitative Methods for Fire Safety Engineering 5, Numerical Methods and Computing 2, Engineering 1, Civil Engineering 1

• Travelling/post-flashover fires, including fire spread simulation using High Performance Computing (HPC) resources (EPSRC UKCTRF/EU TRAFIR, SureFire Hong Kong) (video)
• Fire-structure coupling methodologies for large/complex spaces (RFCS FIRESTRUC)
• Sensor-linked fire and egress models, including ICU evacuations (BRE Trust PhD studentships)
• Fire hazard prediction, including smoke and toxic species (EPSRC, Nuffield)
• Thermo-mechanical response of composite and steel vessels in fire (EU FireComp, EPSRC PhD studentship with Akzonobel/Promat)
• Fire behaviour of energy efficient constructions and facade fires (Rockwool)

Room 3.08, Alexander Graham Bell building https://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/maps?building=0618

• M.Sc. in Materials Chemistry, Merit, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2022
• B.Sc. in Applied Science, First class with Distinction, PSG College of Technology, Anna University, India, 2021 

• Polymer Science and Engineering
• Environmental Nanotoxicology
• Atomic Force Spectroscopy