About

Ian graduated in 1981 from Loughborough University of Technology in Civil Engineering. He did his PhD at the University of Birmingham, graduating in 1985, on aspects of solute mixing processes in well-mixed estuaries. His first academic appointment was as at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, followed by an appointment to the lecturing staff within our Department in 1990, where, alongside Professor Adrian Saul, he helped to set up our postgraduate Water MSc courses and the Water research group. In January 2005, he was appointed Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Warwick. He returned to Sheffield in 2018 with EPSRC Established Career Fellowship funding. Ian is Sheffield born and bred and for the majority of his life, has lived in his home city.

Career Type:

Scientist/Researcher/Academic

Organization Type:

Universities and Academia

Expertise Fields/Interests:

Ian's research interests centre around the mixing and transport of contaminants and pollutants in coastal and estuarine areas, rivers, urban drainage and most recently, pipe distribution systems. His work aims to identify and quantify the transport and mixing processes within areas of civil engineering hydraulics. This is achieved by conducting laboratory and field studies, then developing simplified modelling procedures for engineering applications. Research projects have investigated the mixing processes in urban drainage and treatment systems, looking at specific components, such as manholes and combined sewer overflow structures, wetlands and ponds, river systems, quantifying dispersion effects due to topographic variations, estuarine studies and coastal mixing processes. These topics are particularly important for modelling water quality processes. He has been funded to undertake research studies on UK national hydraulic facilities, the Flood Channel and the Coastal Research Facility, formerly situated at HR Ltd., Wallingford and major European research laboratory facilities at DHI and Delft. In recent years, fundamental research has been funded by EPSRC, NERC, and the EU, with applied research funded by Unilever, Water utilities, the Environment Agency and Highways England (formerly the Highways Agency).

Major Achievements: