Professor Catherine Noakes

Profile

I am a chartered mechanical engineer, with a background in fluid dynamics. My teaching and research expertise is in building physics and environmental engineering and I lead research into ventilation, indoor air quality and infection control in the built environment. My internationally recognised group carry out experimental and modelling based studies, in particular to explore the transport of airborne pathogens, the influence of indoor airflows and effectiveness of engineering approaches to controlling airborne disease transmission. This include substantial research activity and policy advice relating to COVID-19 transmission

I have a BEng (class 1) in Mathematical Engineering (1996) and a PhD  "Slot Exit Flow Phenomena in Industrial Slide-Fed Coating Systems" (2000) both from School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds. From 2000-2002 I worked as a KTP associate on a project to optimise industrial drying of coated products. I joined the School of Civil Engineering in 2002 as a postdoctoral researcher modelling air disinfection systems. I was appointed as a lecturer in 2007 and then promoted to Reader in 2010 and Chair in 2014.

I am currently Pro Dean for Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences. I am Co-Director for the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Fluid Dynamics, and was formerly the Deputy Director for Leeds Institute for Fluid Dynamics (2018-2024). During the COVID-19 pandemic I co-chaired the Environment and Modelling sub group for the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and have contributed to multiple advisory groups and initiatives through IMechE, CIBSE, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Academy of Medical Sciences, WHO, the NHS and several government departments. I was  Faculty of Engineering Athena Swan Lead 2014-2017 and led a successful Silver Athena Swan submission covering all five schools in the Faculty. I was chair of the University Women at Leeds network 2013-2017. In December 2021 I was one of the guest lecturers in the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. I have recieved a number of awards and professional recognition:

• 2023 – Royal Society Gabor Medal
• 2021 – Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
• 2020 – OBE for Services to the COVID-19 Pandemic
• 2020 – Royal Academy of Engineering Presidents Special Award for Pandemic Service
• 2018 – Academy of Fellows, International Society for Indoor Air Quality (ISIAQ) 
• 2016 - University of Leeds, Women of Acheivement Award
• 2014 - Recipient of IMechE Construction and Building Services Division Prize
• 2014 - Fellow of Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE)
• 2013 - Fellow of Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estates Management (FIHEEM)

Responsibilities

• Pro Dean for Research and Innovation

Research interests

My research interests lie in environmental fluid flow problems, with a strong focus on indoor air quality and investigating the transmission and control of airborne infection in healthcare environments. Recent studies have involved a range of techniques including experimental assessment of bioaerosol dispersion in indoor environments, CFD analysis to model the spread of airborne pathogens and the effectiveness of control devices, and the development of epidemic models that incorporate the influence of the physical environment and the behaviour of people. My interests in indoor air quality, include the role of ventilation in controlling exposure to pollutants, relationships to urban air flows and outdoor air quality, natural and mechanical ventilation design,  and the influence of poor air quality on human health and wellbeing

Current projects:

HUMANIC – Human Centric Indoor Climate for Healthcare Facilities (CoI), 2024-2028, Marie Curie ITN with multiple cross Europe partners.

The HumanIC network aims to build a new approach to hospital environmental design through the concept of a human-centric indoor climate. The HumanIC network will bring together leading academic teams from across Europe with hospital and healthcare HVAC industry partners to train early stage engineers and scientists to enable a new approach to the human-centric indoor climate in Healthcare Environments.

Healthy Urban Places: a systems approach to understanding how to harness the power of local places to improve population health and reduce inequalities: HUP-North (CoI) 2024-2028, UKRI multi-partner hub. 

HUP-North will provide a step change in understanding how best to harness the power of local urban places as tools for population health. We will elucidate how and why local environments influence population health, directly influencing implementation of place based changes in the North of England. We will build interdisciplinary research capacity between decision-makers, communities and researchers. We add substantial value to this application by embedding our project in whole city region population test-beds that are built on strong community co-production with a clear focus on policy translation.

A Cleaning Framework for Ground Public Transport to Mitigate Against Infectious Disease Transmission (PI), 2023-2024, EPSRC IAA funding

This project will establish a framework for cleaning activities on GPT to balance benefits and impacts and enable effective design of cleaning protocols for current and emerging pathogens. We will develop a practical toolkit for safe and sustainable cleaning to improve the resilience of GPT to future pandemics.

CECAM: Chamber for Environmental Control of Airborne Microorganisms (PI), 2021-2025, EPSRC

This EPSRC funded strategic equipment grant will develop a unique multi-user facility for analysis of the aeroslization, transport, deposition and survival of microorganisms relevant to infection transmission. The purpose of the facility is to support research into infection prevention and control through better approaches to detecting and mitigating microorganisms in indoor environments. 

Previous projects in the past 5 years:

Breathing City: Future Urban Ventilation Network  (PI), 2020-2023, NERC SPF Clean Air Network, collaboration between 8 academic partners, UKHSA and stakeholders

The Future Urban Ventilation Network are developing a technical framework to enable a new integrated health evidenced approach to urban building design and technology innovation – The Breathing City. We are creating a strategy for a new holistic approach considering coupled indoor-outdoor flows in the context of current and future air quality challenges together with their impacts on thermal comfort, noise and energy use. We bring together researchers, practitioners and policy makers to understand technical and practical challenges, scope this new approach and develop a programme of research and impact activities that are needed to make it a reality http://breathingcity.org/

TRACK: Transport Risk Assessment for COVID Knowledge  (PI), 2020-2023, EPSRC COVID-19 award in collaboration with Manchester, Cambridge, Imperial, Newcastle Universities, UKHSA, Dstl and DfT

TRACK aims to evaluate the range of microbial, environmental and behavioural factors that determine the risks of virus transmission on public transport and the most appropriate mitigation strategies. The project is carrying out environmental microbial sampling, analysis of passenger travel behaviour and demographics, novel CCTV analysis of passenger locations and touch surface interactions, analysis of ventilation flows in trains and buses and development of QMRA transmission risk models to evaluate the relative importance of factors such as mask wearing, ventilation, hand hygiene and density of passengers. The project is in collaboration with multiple transport operators. 

Evaluation of Far UV devices (CI), 2021 NHS Test and Trace Innovation Funding, 2022 NHS Scotland Assure Funding, collaboration with St Andrews University and NHS Tayside

Far UV (222nm) has the potential to safely inactivate microorganisms in the air and on surfaces in rooms. This study is carrying out full scale chamber testing of Far UV devices together with computatational modelling to determine the effectiveness of the technology and provide evidence to support real-world deployment

Class-ACT study (CI), 2021-2022, DHSC funded

Class-ACT is carrying out a study comparing the effectiveness of air cleaning devices at reducing infection risk, including COVID-19, in 30 Bradford primary schools. The study is testing the effectiveness of portable HEPA filter devices and enclosed “active air” UV devices and will measure sickness and absence rates as well as environmental parameters temperature, humidity, CO2 and PM. Alongside the study is gaining insight into practical aspects relating to deployment of devices in classroom environments.  

PROTECT National Core Study on Transmission and the Environment (CI, theme 2 lead), 2020-2023, HM government funded consortia of around 200 researchers

The PROTECT COVID-19 National Core Study on transmission and environment is a UK-wide research programme improving our understanding of how SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is transmitted from person to person, and how this varies in different settings and environments. This improved understanding will enable more effective measures to stop transmission, saving lives and getting society back towards ‘normal’. The study is led by HSE and focuses on addressing key questions to support COVID-19 policy. https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/covid19-national-project/

CONTACT CONtact TrAcing in Care homes using digital Technology (CI), 2020-2023, NIHR

The CONTACT trial is a clinical trial that aims to understand whether wearable digital contact tracing devices and tailored feedback of results (the CONTACT intervention) is a cost-effective means of contact tracing in care homes, improving infection control and COVID-19 resident infection rates and reducing mortality.

HECOIRA: Healthcare Environment Control, Optimisation and Infection Risk Assessment (PI), 2017-2022, EPSRC Healthcare Impact Partnership in collaboration with two NHS trusts and two industry partners

A major barrier to delivering good patient environments is having usable tools to assess risks and adapt the environment and operations in a responsive manner. Current tools for designing and operating healthcare buildings and selecting technology are good at modelling energy, but are very limited from a health and infection control perspective. Our previous research developed new methods for modelling hospital environments and their influence on infection risk. In this project we aim to build on these approaches to develop and test novel computational based tools to assess, monitor and control real patient environments in hospitals for infection control, comort and well-being. We will develop and couple models of physical, environmental, microbial and human parameters together with environmental sensor data to build new tools to dynamically model hospital environments. 

• CONtact TrAcing in Care homes using digital Technology (CONTACT)
• Excising Infection in the Surgical Environment [ExISE]
• Future Urban Ventilation Network – The Breathing City
• Healthcare Environment Control, Optimisation and Infection Risk Assessment (HECOIRA)
• Human - Centric Indoor Climate for Healthcare Facilities (HumanIC)
• Influence of ventilation design on the prevalence of anti-microbial bacteria in homes
• Targeting airborne bacterial infection: Studies on patient- and laboratory-generated mycobacterium tuberculosis aerosols
• TRACK: Transport Risk Assessment for COVID Knowledge

Professional memberships

• FREng
• FIMechE
• FIHEEM
• FISIAQ
• HonFCIBSE

Student education

I previously taught undergraduate Building Physics modules and an MSc module on Indoor Air Quality. I currently support training on the EPSRC CDT in Fluid Dynamics and the EPSRC CDT in Aerosol Science. 

Research groups and institutes

• Water, Public Health and Environmental Engineering
• Centre for Computational Engineering
• Cities, Infrastructure and Energy

Current postgraduate researchers

• Mofwe Kapulu
• Alexander Edwards