Academic staff

• PhD in Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada, 2010 Dissertation: Transport Phenomena in Cathode Catalyst Layer of PEM Fuel Cells (Advisor: Prof Xianguo Li)
• MSc in Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Canada, 2003 Dissertation: Electrostatic Double Layer Interactions in Confined and Many-Body Geometries (Advisor: Prof Subir Bhattacharjee)
• MSc in Mechanical Engineering, BUET, Bangladesh, 2001 Thesis: Elastic-Plastic Behaviour of a Circular Rod under Combined Torque and Tension (Supervisor: Prof Abu Rayhan Md. Ali)
• BSc (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering, BUET, Bangladesh, 1998 Thesis: Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of a Solar Water Heater (Supervisor: Prof Md. Imtiaz Hossain)

Editorships Associate Editor in Electrochemical Engineering, Frontiers in Chemical Engineering (2022–date) Associate Editor, Journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage (2021–date) Associate Editor in Fuel Cells, Electrolyzers and Membrane Reactors, Frontiers in Energy Research (2020–date)

Guest Editor for the special issue: Multiphysics, Multiphase, and Multiscale Modeling and Characterization of Porous Media in Electrochemical Energy Systems, Frontiers in Energy Research (2023) Lead Guest Editor for the special issue: Battery Management in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends, Batteries (2022–2023) Lead Guest Editor of a special issue on Advanced Energy Materials and Research, Energies (2020–2021)

Editorial Board Member for section Battery Performance, Ageing, Reliability and Safety, Batteries (2022–date) Editorial Board Member of Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2022–date) Editorial Board Member for section D1: Advanced Energy Materials, Energies (2019–2023) Editorial Board Member for section Inventions and Innovation in Energy and Thermal/Fluidic Science, Inventions (2018–date)

Advisory Board Member, Challenges, MDPI (2020–date)

• Thermodynamics 4
• Professional Issues for Mechanical Engineers 3
• Sustainable Energy Systems Dissertation
• Mechanical Engineering Project 4

Dr Angus Law is a Lecturer in Fire Safety Engineering; he has previous held positions as a Lecturer at the Univeristy of Queensland (Australia), and as an Engineer at Ove Arup and Partners (UK).

Angus' interests are around developing design methods for use in industry, and ensuring that pratitioners have the necessary skills and knowledge to be able to impliment fire engineering designs safely and effectively.

Angus is currently invovled in reserach projects relating to cladding fires, engineered timber buidlings, and societal aspects of regulation.

PhD in Fire Safety Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh (2010).

MEng Civil Engineering, 1st Class, University of Edinburgh (2007).

Dr Law is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) with the Institution of Fire Engineers (MIFireE).

Dr Law's current teaching roles include:

• Course organiser and primary lecturer in the first year programme's Civil Engineering 1;
• Course organiser and lecture in the honours class - Structural Design for Fire Safety 5.

Dr Law also assists in the delivery of the second year's Surveying Field Trip.

Previous teaching roles have included: Fire Engineering Design: Solutions for Implicit Safety; Introduction to Project Management; and Construction Engineering Management.

Dr Yang's current research interests focus on Composites Engineering (materials, manufacturing and structures) and Computational Engineering (multiscale, multiphysics, multiphase coupling). With a background in manufacturing and later experience in structural and materials engineering, his cross-disciplinary research is at the interfaces of underpinning material science, emerging manufacturing technologies and advanced structural analysis and design. He also develops computational techniques and deterministic models to address multiscale, multiphysics and multiphase coupling challenges across engineering disciplines.

Google Scholar Researchgate

• BEng in Mechanical Engineering, 2004.
• MSc in Mechanical Engineering, 2007.
• PhD in Civil Engineering, Leeds (with ORSAS scholarship), 2011.

CEng, FIMechE, FHEA

I welcome talented PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows and academic/industrial visitors from various engineering disciplines to work on composites engineering and computational engineering.

There are various scholarship opportunities at Edinburgh, click the links below for more details:

CSC-Edinburgh scholarship

Principal's Career Development PhD Scholarships​

Edinburgh Global Research Scholarship

University of Edinburgh scholarships

Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) scholarships

Edinburgh Centre for Robotics

‪Andrew Downes‬ - ‪Google Scholar‬

Andrew studied at the University of Cambridge and was awarded a degree in Natural Sciences (Physics) in 1992. He continued in Cambridge for his PhD on nano-optical microscopy which was awarded in 1996. He remained in Cambridge as a Postdoc on the analysis of metallic nanowires until 1998, when he moved to Marseille to continue work on nano-optical microscopy and spectroscopy. He returned to Cambridge in 2001 to set up a nano-optical microscope, and in 2003-4 was at UCL working on nano-optical lithography.

In 2005 he moved to Edinburgh to work on nano-optical Raman microscopy. In 2006 he set up a Coherent anti-Stokes microscope for biological samples, and in 2007 was awarded an RCUK fellowship which converted into a lectureship in 2012. Research expanded to Raman spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy mechanical measurements, and high-speed Raman imaging of biological samples. A common theme has been novel measurements, and pushing the limits of detection. In 2020 he was promoted to senior lecturer.

A recent focus has been the use of Raman spectroscopy in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, investigating living cells and tissues and applying to accurate diagnosis.

PhD (Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, 1996).

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) since 2017.

• Raman spectroscopy for analysis of biological materials, and disease diagnosis
• High-speed Raman (CARS, SRS) microscopy
• Equipment development for Raman spectroscopy and microscopy
• Nano-scale (tip-enhanced) Raman spectroscopy and microscopy

• PhD in Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, PA, USA
• MSc in Electrical & Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, PA, USA
• Eberly Center Diploma in Higher Education, Carnegie Mellon University, PA, USA
• Diploma in Translation (DipTrans), Institute of Linguists, London, UK
• Diploma in Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

• AIChE (CAST), IChemE (CAPE WG), TMS, ASEE, SoCI

• Programme Director of the MSc in Advanced Chemical Engineering
• Oil and Gas Systems Engineering 4/5 (SCEE11008)
• Chemical Engineering Design Projects 4 (CHEE10002)
• Chemical Engineering Study Project 4 (CHEE10009)
• Chemical Engineering Industrial Project 5 (CHEE11014)
• Chemical Engineering Research Project 5 (CHEE11017)

Pharmaceutical Process Systems Engineering

• Read: Process modelling and simulation for continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing of artemisinin

Technoeconomic Evaluation of Batch and Continuous Pharmaceutical Processes

• Read: Plantwide design and economic evaluation of two Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (CPM) cases: Ibuprofen and artemisinin

Biochemical, Food & Drink Process Dynamic Optimisation

• Read: Multi-objective process optimisation of beer fermentation via dynamic simulation

Oil & Gas and Energy Systems Modelling and Optimisation

• Read: First-principles rheological modelling and parameter estimation for nanoparticle-based smart drilling fluids

Oil & Gas Project Technoeconomic Evaluation

• Read: A database and workflow integration methodology for rapid evaluation and selection of Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) technologies for heavy oil fields

High-Temperature Materials Processing Optimisation

• Read: Model-based sensitivity analysis and experimental investigation of perlite grain expansion in a vertical electrical furnace

• Pharmaceutical Process Systems Engineering
• Biochemical, Food & Drink Process Dynamic Optimisation
• Oil & Gas and Energy Systems Modelling and Optimisation
• High-Temperature Materials Processing Optimisation

Khushboo Pandey — University of Edinburgh Research Explorer

I am a Senior Lecturer in Ocean Observation. My research focuses on the use of remote sensing to study water, energy and environmental problems. In particular, I am interested in using multi and hyperspectral satellite imagery, in situ data, and machine learning techniques to investigate processes modelling the coastal environment. I also work on the application of satellite data to reduce the cost of marine renewable energy and better understand its environmental impact. I hold a PhD in Energy Systems & Dynamics of Biogeochemical Flows. I am a Turing Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), and a Chartered Engineer (CEng MICE). I am a certified commercial drone pilot (Civil Aviation Authority A2 CofC and GVC).

Research

I lead the Coastal and Environmental Remote Sensing Group (CEReS) at the School of Engineering. We study topics involving remote sensing of the coastal ocean, marine renewables and coastal engineering. Have a look at our work in the section Further Information below.

I am the Principal Investigator and Director of the Failure Modes of Engineering (FeME) Network Plus. This project was awarded £2.2 million in 2025 by EPSRC. We focus on engineering solutions for climate change and biodiversity loss, and their impact on women, children and underrepresented communities. My interest in this area stems from the transformative potential of satellite data to address global challenges—particularly in resource-constrained regions—and its role in advancing climate justice. You can find more about this project here. If you want to be involved, please get in touch!

You can find details on the research projects I am involved at present, and the ones I have worked on in the past in the link to "Research Publications" at the top of this page.

Leadership

I am the Deputy Director for Training of the UK Space Agency and NERC Centre for Satellite Data in Environmental Science, SENSE. I am also a co-investigator and part of the management team of the EPSRC and NERC Centre for Doctoral Training in Offshore Renewable Energy IDCORE.

My story so far

I started my studies in Ingenieria de Caminos, Canales y Puertos (MEng Civil & Environmental Engineering) at the University of Granada (Spain) in 2008, focusing on marine energy and coastal engineering. In 2013 I did an MSc in Environmental Hydraulics, specialised in aero-hydrodynamics.

I moved in 2014 to Oxford, where I worked as a Researcher in Coastal Structures at HR Wallingford. During that time, I developed my computational fluid dynamics skills, analysing the effect of storms in breakwaters and wave energy converters. In 2015 I was awarded a Talentia Fellowship to pursue a joint PhD at the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with the University of Granada.

From 2017, I worked at the University of Edinburgh as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Marine Energy, where I studied the life cycle and techno-economics of marine energy converters, as well as the numerical modelling of ocean energy arrays. Moreover, I was a Work Package leader for a €20 million H2020 project from the European Commission working on numerical tools for the optimisation of tidal energy farms. In 2018, I was awarded a Chancellor's Fellowship in Data Driven Innovation focusing on satellite applications for the ocean. In 2023, I was promoted to Senior Lecturer.

• PgCert (Postgraduate Certificate) in Academic Practice, PgCAP. University of Edinburgh, 2021 - 2022.
• PhD Energy Systems & Dynamics of Biogeochemical Flows. University of Edinburgh and University of Granada (Spain), 2015 - 2017.
• MSc Environmental Hydraulics. Universities of Granada, Malaga and Cordoba (Spain), 2013 - 2014.
• MEng Civil & Environmental Engineering (Ingenieria de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, 5 year degree). University of Granada (Spain), 2008 - 2013.

• CEng MICE, Chartered Engineer, Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
• FHEA, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
• Commercial Drone Pilot: A2 Certificate of Competency (A2CofC), and General Visual Line of Sights Certificate (GVC)
• Turing Fellow, The Alan Turing Institute.
• MASTS (Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland). Former member of the Marine Energy Forum Steering Group.
• IMarEST (Institute for Marine Engineering, Science & Technology). Former student member.

At undergraduate level:

• Coastal Engineering 5 (Course Organiser), 10 SCQF credits.
• Interdisciplinary Group Design Project 4 (Course Organiser), Potable Water Supply, 20 SCQF credits.

Past courses I have taught:

• At undergraduate level: Programming Skills for Engineers 2, 10 SCQF credits (2020-2022)
• At postgraduate level: SENSE CDT, Python code carpentry and Google Earth Engine workshop (40 taught hours) (2020-2024).

• Remote sensing of the ocean.
• Marine renewables.
• Coastal science and engineering.
• Machine learning applications.

CEReS - Coastal and Environmental Remote Sensing Group

Current members

1. Penny Clarke, PhD student, SENSE CDT. Topic: Using remote sensing tools to study ocean health and whale strandings. 2021 - present. Co-supervised with British Antarctic Survey (Dr Jennifer Jackson).
2. Anneke Sperling, PhD student, SENSE CDT. Topic: Do ocean currents stick together? 2023 - present. Co-supervised with National Oceanography Centre (Dr Alejandra Sanchez-Franks).
3. Liam McAlister, EngD student, IDCORE CDT. Topic: Offshore wind structures design sensitivity to metocean site conditions. 2024 - present. Co-supervised with University of Strathclyde, University of Exeter and SSE Renewables (Dr Alyona Naberezhnykh).
4. Nishant Gaur, PhD student. Topic: Hydro-climatological extremes in the context of climate change. 2024-present. Co-supervised with Prof. Lindsay Beevers.
5. Jasmine Relf, PhD student. Topic: Towards a resilient coast. Developing a continuous coastal resilience indicator for monitoring and adaptation in a changing climate. 2025-present. Co-supervised with JBA Consulting (Dr Demetra Cristaudo).

Past members

1. Dr Simone Zen, Postdoctoral Research Associate. Topics:
   1. Assessment of the Omo river and delta using satellite data. 2019 - 2021.
   2. Supergen ORE Hub funded project Satellite Climate Observation for Offshore Renewable Energy Cost Reduction (SCORE). 2020 - 2021.
2. Dr Segio Lopez-Dubon, Postdoctoral Marie Curie Fellow. Topic: Data-Driven Structural Testing for Tidal Energy. 2020 - 2025.
3. Dr Emma McAllister, PhD. Topic: High-resolution satellite remote sensing of the coastal morphology. 2019 - 2024. Co-supervised with BGS (Dr Alessandro Novellino and Dr Andres Payo-Garcia) and Cefas (Dr Tony Dolphin).
4. Dr Madjid Hadjal, PhD, Data Lab industrial PhD. Topic: Automated classification of ocean colour remote sensing for environmental monitoring and legislative compliance. 2018 - 2022. Co-supervisor, student based in University of Strathclyde (main supervisor Dr David McKee) in collaboration with Marine Scotland.
5. Dr Solomon White, PhD student, SENSE CDT. Topic: High-resolution multispectral estimation of sea surface salinity and temperature. 2020 - 2024. Co-supervised with Cefas (Dr Tiago Silva).
6. Valentina Gonzalez, MEng student. Topic: Offshore solar resource assessment in the North Sea using remote sensing. 2024-2025.
7. Samantha Waugh, MEng student. Topic: Levelised Cost of Energy uncertainty estimation - A case study for offshore wind. 2024-2025.
8. Ed Holt, PhD student, SENSE CDT. Topic: Investigating the potential for catastrophic collapse of Greenland's lake-terminating glacier margins. 2021 - 2025. Co-supervised with School of Geosciences (Prof. Peter Nienow).
9. Melissa Cabrera Alfaro, MSc Geographical Information Science (School of Geosciences). Topic: The role of fishing refuge areas in the absorption of CO2. 2023-2024.
10. Joe Marsh-Rossney, PhD student, guest team member (based in School of Physics and Astronomy).
11. Katie McWilliams, MEng Civil Engineering student, final year thesis. Topic: Sea Surface Salinity From Satellite Data, Machine Learning And Numerical Models. 2021 - 2022.
12. Clementine Frere, MEng Civil Engineering student, final year thesis. Topic: Feasibility Study Of Coastsnap In The Edinburgh Shores. 2020-2021.
13. Hubert Gurs, MEng Structural Engineering with Architecture student, final year thesis. Topic: Feasibility Study Of Coastsnap In The Edinburgh Shores. 2020-2021.
14. Nick Heaney, MEng Civil Engineering student, final year thesis. Topic: Coastsnap Assessment For Adaptation To Python. 2020-2021.
15. Marcin Filinger, BEng Civil Engineering student, final year thesis. Topic: Flood risk assessment in Scotland using satellite data and numerical models. 2019-2020.
16. Simone Speltoni, Visiting student, MSc thesis. Topic: Modelling the interaction between marine energy converters and the coast (Collaboration with the University of Trento, Italy). Awarded best MSc thesis. 2019.

www.VOILAb.eng.ed.ac.uk

Ignazio Maria Viola is Professor of Fluid Mechanics and Bioinspired Engineering at the School of Engineering of the University of Edinburgh; Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University; Adjunct Professor at the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna; and Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA).

He publishes in Nature, Nature Communication, eLife, Renewable Energy, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Ocean Engineering, etc. For his publications, Viola was awarded two RINA Medals of Distinction and one Medal of Exceptional Merit, a Gold Rating for the Best Journal Article by the International Marine Energy Journal, as well as the Covid-19 Hero Medal of the School of Engineering of the U. of Edinburgh for significant contribution to solving Covid-19 challenges.

Overall Viola has contributed to securing research grants in the excess of £18M of which £6M were allocated to his institution and £7M as Principal Investigator. He leads an ERC Consolidator Grant fellowship DANDIDRONE (€2m, 101001499), an ARIA grant SEED (£0.5m), the EPSRC project MORPHING BLADES (£1m, EP/V009443/1), and several other grants funded by industry, the Royal Society, etc. Viola is Co-Investigator and Director of Responsible Research and Innovation of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Wind & Marine Energy Systems & Structures (£6m, EP/S023801/1).

He is the Functional Vice President Alt. of Knowledge Management of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME), and a member of several Executive Committees, including the Group on Energy Research and Applications of the American Physical Society, the UK Fluids Network, the UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Network, and he is a member of the Academic Board of the National Robotarium.

Viola is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sailing Technology (SNAME), and Associate Editor of the Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering (ASME), and the Journal of Ocean Engineering and Marine Energy (Springer). He is a member of the Executive Committee of the conference series ECCOMAS International Conference on Computational Methods in Marine Engineering (MARINE), and Innovation in High-Performance Sailing Yachts (Innov'Sail).

Curriculum Vitae

Research Group: VOILAb

• 2008, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Experimental and Numerical Aerodynamics of Sailing Yachts, Politecnico di Milano
• 2001, Master of Engineering, Naval Architecture, Università degli studi di Genova

CEng, Chartered Engineer Registered by the Engineering Council (UK), no. 584133 (2010) Dott. ing., Italian State Examination to practice as ‘Ingegnere’ (engineer) (2001) EUR ING, European Federation of National Engineering Associations, no. 31153 (2010) FRINA, Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, no. 00174260 (member since 2009)

Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Sailing Technology, SNAME (2016-date) Associate Editor, Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering, ASME (2023-date) Associate Editor, Journal of Ocean Engineering and Marine Energy, Springer (2023-date)

Functional Vice President Alt. of Knowledge Management, Society of Naval Arch. and Marine Eng. (2024-date) Executive Committee, Group on Energy Research and Applications, American Physical Society (2023-date) Executive Committee, UK Fluids Network (2020-date) Executive Committee, UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Network (2024-date) Academic Board, National Robotarium (2024-date)

• Fluid Mechanics
• Marine Energy
• Naval Architecture

Aerodynamics and hydrodynamics, including

• Aerodynamics
• Biomechanics
• COVID Aerodynamics
• Sail Aerodynamics
• Wind and Tidal Energy

• Research group: VOILAb
• Research Explorer (paper repository)
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Edinburgh Fluid Dynamics Group

• Laurea summa cum laude in Chemical Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy, 2005
• PhD in Chemical Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy, 2009
• Post Graduate Diploma in Tertiary Teaching, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 2014

• Associate Member of IChemE
• Member of NZBio
• Investigator in the Biomolecular Interaction Centre, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

• Chemical Engineering Unit Operations 3 - CHEE09009

• Development of high resolution 3D Printing methods
• Bioseparations for the production of bioproducts/pharmaceuticals, focus on chromatography
• Wet resistant adhesives
• Material science, focus on biomaterials