Research Activity

• Thirty-five years experience of conducting, supervising and managing research within the university sector.
• International research experience gained in four continents: Africa (Egypt and Libya), Asia (China, India, Japan, Pakistan and Syria), Europe (see list below) and the USA (Illinois, Kansas and California).
• Collaborated with research/higher education institutions across EU (Czech, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, and Spain), Russia and Turkey.
• As Director of Studies / Supervisor responsible for completion of 21 PhD and 3 MPhil programmes
• Currently supervising 5 PhD and 1 MPhil candidates.
• Currently leading research programmes supported by (i) UKCIP/EPSRC related to Climate Change (run in collaboration with University of Manchester and three other universities), (ii) EU-ERASMUS/ETRESH programme (run in collaboration with Czech, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Spain, and Turkey along with Dundee and Glasgow Caledonian universities), and (iii) SOLARIS international network of solar radiation and daylighting researchers. To date this group has organised four international conferences.
• Chair - ETRESH (Education and Training on Renewable Energy Systems for Housing) EU working party. This course is sponsored by EU-Erasmus.
• Chair - Solar Data Task Group of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineering (1994-2006)
• Currently awaiting outcome of the following research bids: British Council supported research collaboration with (i) Bahrain and (ii) Israel, and ESRC supported research collaboration with Salford and Glamorgan universities.
• Contributed widely towards research/publication/professional guidance/CPD activities of the Chartered Institution of Building services Engineers, London and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London.
• Led a dedicated programme of Renewable Energy research laboratory development that included completion of (i) First Scottish station for the measurement of solar radiation and daylight (Sponsor: UK-DTi, project cost: £135,000),  (ii) A 160m2 solar PV façade that produces 15kW peak electrical power (Sponsors: Energy Saving Trust and other philanthropists, project cost: £180,000), (iii) Three roof-top micro-wind turbines (Sponsors: Energy Saving Trust and industry, project cost: £15,000), (iv) Solar water heating laboratory (Sponsor: SRIF, project cost: £15,000), (v) Solar space heating laboratory (Sponsors: NorDan-UK, Living Design and Scottish Enterprise, project cost: £12,000), (vi) Light-pipe laboratory (Sponsors: Monodraught and KTP, project cost: £50,000) and (vii) Solar-Hydrogen laboratory (Sponsor: SRIF, project cost: £100,000).

Professional Activities/Achievements

Memberships and Advisory Posts

Chair – SOLARIS international network of solar radiation and daylighting researchers. To date this group has organised four international conferences.

Chair - ETRESH (Education and Training on Renewable Energy Systems for Housing) EU working party. This course is sponsored by EU-Erasmus.

Chair - Solar Data Task Group of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineering (1994-2006)

Member, British Daylight Measurement Group (1991-94)

Member, CIE Technical Committee TC3.25 on Int. Daylight Measurement Programme (1993 - present)

Reviewer, Referee and Discusser for the following scientific journals: a- Solar Energy, b- Energy in Buildings, c-Lighting Research & Technology, and d- Building Services Engineering Research & Technology

External Examiner for MPhil/PhD candidates registered at Nottingham, Sheffield & Strathclyde Universities

Consultant to the CIBSE (London) Guide A, C & J Committees

Member, Scottish Universities Forum for Environment (2001 - present)

Member, British  Standards Committee for Solar Water Heaters (2001 - present)

Member, UMIST/East Anglia University - Centre for climate change / solar radiation data (2002 – present)

Member, CIE Technical Committee TC3.28 on Tubular Daylighting Systems (2002 - present)

Member, Scottish Parliament Renewable Energy Group (SPREG) (2003 – present)

Chair, International Steering Committee for Solar Radiation & Daylight Group (2003 – present). This group hosted its first biennially held international conference in September 2003 at Napier University. The proceedings were published in a special issue of Elsevier’s Energy journal. The second international conference was held in Athens, Greece in May 2005 and the following two events are to be held in Delhi, India (in February 2007) and Hong Kong (in November 2008).

Internal Activities

Course committee member/lecturer for BEng(Hons) in Engineering Technology, PgD in Computer Applications in Engineering and MSc in Offshore Engineering at Robert Gordon's Inst. of Technology, Aberdeen (1985 - 90)

Course Leader for short course on, "Computer Graphics and Design", Robert Gordon's Inst. of Tech. (1988-89)

Course committee member/Course Leader for MSc/PgD in Environmental Technology, Napier University (1992-94)

Director of Research, School of Engineering (1996 - present)

Member, School of Engineering Management Team (1998 - present)

Member, Faculty of Engineering Research Committee (1996 - present)

Member, University Research Committee (2000 - present)

Current and Recent Research Projects

Funded Projects

Oct ‘91 - Sep ‘94. 'Daylight and solar radiation measurement'. Sponsor: DTI / ETSU (£67,000).

May ‘93 - Apr ‘96. 'Thermal & daylight transmission of multiple-glazing'. Sponsor: Living Design (£20,000).

Oct ‘95 - Sep ‘98. 'Life cycle assessment of windows'. Sponsor: Nor-Dan (£15,000).

Oct ‘96 - Sep ‘98 'Daylight models based on meteorological data'. Sponsor: EPSRC (£57,000).

Sep ‘95 - Aug ‘97 'Production of CIBSE Guide J - Solar and daylight data'. Sponsor: UK-DoE (£14,000).

Sep ‘94 - Apr ‘96 'Novel absorption air conditioner'. Sponsor: Scottish Enterprise (£7,000).

Jan - Mar ‘98 'Solar Energy - The Ultimate Resource'. Sponsors: Royal Society / Brit. Ass. Adv. Science (£3,480).

Apr ‘96 - Mar ‘01 SHEFC RAE grant (£40,000).

Jan ‘98 - Feb ‘00 'Solar dessicant air-conditioning'. Consultancy project for Gaia Research (£5,900).

Oct ‘98 - Sep ‘01 'Vehicular emission’. Sponsor: City of Edinburgh (£31,500).

Oct ‘99 - Sep ‘02 'Application of sun-pipes in buildings'. Sponsor: Monodraught (£18,000).

Mar ‘00 - Feb ‘02 'Life cycle assessment of Al-clad windows'. Sponsor: Nor-Dan (£18,000).

Nov ’01 – Jan ’03 TCS/Monodraught grant for work on sun-pipes (£30,000)

Oct ’03 ‘A 160-m2 PV façade for Napier University’ Energy Saving Trust (UK-DTI: £80,675)) + private donor (£25,000)

April ’03 to March ’05 Proof of concept fund for a project on ‘Microbial devulcanisation and recycling of rubber from used vehicle tyres (administered by Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Executive & Highlands & Islands Enterprise) (£158,000)

Industrial Research Fellowship

May - Jul ‘96. 'CFD combustion chamber model'. Sponsor: RK Textiles, Inverness (£2,800).

Equipment and Facilities

Oct ‘90 - Transparent Insulation Material (TIM) test chamber. Sposnors: Scottish Development Agency & Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (£2,000).

Oct ‘92 - Scottish Education Department grant for upgrading Energy Engineering laboratory (£17,000).

Oct ‘93 and Aug ‘95 - Window heat transfer work. Sposnor: Nor-Dan (£4,400)

Apr ’04 – Scottish Research Infrastructure Funding 2 (£40,000)

Apr ’05 – Scottish Research Infrastructure Funding 3 (£30,000)