The Water, Public Health and Environment department consists of five specialised research groups working collaboratively to address complex challenges in environmental health and sustainability.
Our interdisciplinary approach combines expertise from engineering, biology, chemistry, public health, and social sciences to develop innovative solutions with real-world impact.
Indoor Air Quality and Airborne Infection
Improving the Air We Breathe
The Indoor Air research group focuses on understanding and improving the quality of air in built environments. With people spending up to 90% of their time indoors, our research addresses critical questions about air pollutants, ventilation systems, and their impacts on human health and wellbeing.
Our interdisciplinary team combines expertise in mathematics, chemistry, building engineering, and public health to develop innovative monitoring technologies, evidence-based interventions, and policy recommendations.
Explore Indoor AirResearch Areas
Sensing & Monitoring
Developing sensor networks and analytical techniques for real-time air quality monitoring in diverse indoor environments.
Health Impacts
Modelling relationships between indoor air pollutants and respiratory, cardiovascular, and cognitive health outcomes.
Ventilation Systems
Optimising ventilation strategies and HVAC systems for energy efficiency and improved indoor air quality.
Building Materials
Studying emissions from building materials and developing low-emission alternatives for healthier indoor environments.
Key Projects
Modelling Airflow Around Buildings
How air behaves around buildings impacts on how natural ventilation brings in fresh air.
Completed
Healthy Buildings Network
Bringing together academics, industry and policy makers through dedicated workshops to build lasting partnerships around healthy buildings.
Ongoing
Hospital Environment Control, Optimisation and Infection Risk Assessment (HECOIRA)
Redesigning ventilation systems in healthcare settings to reduce pathogen transmission while maintaining energy efficiency.
CompletedGroup Leader
Dr. Marco-Felipe King
Lecturer in Building Engineering and Infection Control
He focuses on how ventilation strategies, building design, and occupant behaviour affect indoor air quality and pathogen transmission. His interdisciplinary work combines computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling, experimental studies, and real-world applications to reduce the spread of airborne infections in healthcare and public buildings. By partnering with the NHS and industry, Dr. King’s research drives evidence-based improvements in indoor air management, advancing healthy, sustainable environments for occupants and communities.
BioResources and Circular Economy
Transforming Waste into Resource
The BioResources group is focused on developing sustainable technologies for resource recovery and circular economy applications. Our research harnesses biological processes to transform waste streams into valuable materials, energy, and nutrients.
We work at the intersection of environmental biotechnology, chemical engineering, and sustainability science to develop and scale solutions that address waste management challenges while recovering valuable resources.
Explore BioResourcesResearch Areas
Waste Valorization
Converting organic waste streams into high-value products including biofuels, bioplastics, and specialty chemicals.
Microbial Biotechnology
Harnessing microbial communities for resource recovery and environmental remediation applications.
Nutrient Recovery
Developing technologies to extract and recycle essential nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from waste streams.
Industrial Symbiosis
Creating integrated biorefinery concepts where waste from one process becomes a resource for another.
Sanitation and WASH
Sustainable Sanitation Solutions
The Sanitation research group develops innovative approaches to water and sanitation challenges in both developed and developing regions. Our work spans from advanced wastewater treatment technologies to off-grid sanitation solutions for resource-limited settings.
We integrate technical innovation with social, economic, and policy considerations to create sustainable sanitation systems that protect public health and the environment.
Explore SanitationWater
Water Engineering & Management
The Water research group works across the full water cycle — from source protection and treatment to distribution, flood risk and transboundary water governance. Our work combines computational hydraulics, environmental chemistry, and hydrology.
We address global challenges including water scarcity, flood resilience and water quality, partnering with governments, utilities and international agencies to translate research into practice.
Explore WaterData-driven and Computational Methods
One shared toolkit across the four themes
Physics tells us how the world should behave; data tells us how it actually behaved. Across indoor air, water, sanitation and bioresources we build models that combine the two: physics-informed machine learning, Bayesian calibration, data assimilation, high-performance simulation, reduced-order models and multi-objective optimisation.
Six researchers work across this toolkit, and it is why we are active in the Leeds Institute for Fluid Dynamics, where Amirul Khan co-leads the computational group.
Explore our methodsCollaborative Research
Our research groups frequently collaborate on interdisciplinary projects that address complex environmental and public health challenges requiring diverse expertise.
Microplastics: From Source to Solution
Finding microplastics by spectroscopy and real-time particle detection, tracing where they came from with chemometrics, and testing how to remove them — across water, waste streams and air.
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Circular Buildings Initiative
Circular economy work from wind turbine blades to the foundation industries, resource recovery from the waste buildings produce, and the ventilation needed to keep the inside healthy while cutting carbon.
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Urban Environmental Health
Air quality and equity, infection in occupied buildings, citywide inclusive sanitation and urban flood risk — hazards that usually stack on the same households.
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