Join us for Professor Maarten van Reeuwijk’s Imperial Inaugural online or in person.
There is no need to register to attend so please be sure to use the add to calendar button.
Join the lecture live on our YouTube channel
We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday 2 October!
Summary
When discussing urban air quality, thermal comfort, and sustainability, the motion of air is often overlooked. However, air movement is crucial to all these issues, as it transports and mixes pollutants and heat on the way from their source to the recipient, for example in the exposure to air pollution.
Predicting urban air flows is notoriously challenging due to several factors: the complex influence of the urban landscape, temperature differences between the urban surface and the air, vegetation, soil moisture, and urban activities.
Over the last 10 years, Professor Maarten van Reeuwijk and his team have worked on the development of numerical models that can perform high-resolution simulations of the urban outdoor environment. In his inaugural lecture he will demonstrate how these models enhance our understanding of urban air flow and how this knowledge can be leveraged to design cities that are healthier, more energy-efficient, and more comfortable.
Biography
Maarten van Reeuwijk holds an MSc in Civil Engineering from Delft University of Technology, where he specialized in fluid mechanics. In 2007, he earned a PhD in Applied Physics from the same institution, focusing on the understanding, simulation, and mathematical modeling of atmospheric turbulence. Following his PhD, he joined Imperial College London as a Lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and was promoted to Professor of Urban Fluid Mechanics in 2022.
Maarten’s research interests center on transport processes in fluids, with a particular focus on wall-bounded turbulence and buoyancy effects. His work spans various applications, including pollution dispersion, urban heat islands and microclimates in urban areas; atmospheric flows such as convection and clouds; building ventilation involving stratified environments, plumes, jets, and exchange flows; and oceanographic and coastal processes. Maarten is a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and co-director of the UK Urban Fluid Mechanics Special Interest Group.
