Dr Alex Rap
- Position: Associate Professor in Atmospheric Science
- Areas of expertise: Aviation climate impacts; Contrail parameterisations; Aerosol radiative forcing; Biosphere-atmosphere interactions; Diffuse radiation; Ozone radiative forcing
- Email: A.Rap@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 7986
- Location: 11.107 School of Earth and Environment
- Website: Personal homepage | ResearcherID | Googlescholar | ORCID
Profile
I am an Associate Professor in Atmospheric Science in the School of Earth and Environment and a member of the Physical Climate Change and the Biosphere Proceses and Climate research groups within the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science.
I have a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania and a PhD in Environmental Science and Applied Mathematics from the University of Leeds with a thesis on Inverse contaminant fluid flow problems using boundary element methods.
Responsibilities
- Deputy Director of Postgraduate Research Studies
Research interests
My research focuses on better understanding how natural and anthropogenic climate forcers affect the Earth System via radiation changes. Main topics include:
- Modelling aviation impacts on climate
- Contrail parameterisations for climate models
- Radiative forcing of aerosol particles and greenhouse gases
- Impact of diffuse radiation on vegetation
- Land surface modelling
Current projects:
- MAGICA – Modelling Aviation Global climate Impacts from Contrails and Aerosols (PI, NERC, 2024-2026)
- Contrail Assessment of Future Aircraft and Propulsion Architectures (Leeds PI, NERC, 2024-2026)
- Contrails from SAF and H2 combustion; from lab experiments to global mitigation policy (Project partner, NERC, 2024-2026)
- TOZCA – Towards Zero Carbon Aviation (Leeds PI, EPSRC, 2021-2025)
Past projects:
- BA non-CO2 climate impacts (PI, BA, 2023-2024)
- FlyZero – Climate impact of emissions from aircrafts using alternative fuel and energy systems (PI, ATI, 2021-2021)
- Contrail Assessment of Future Aircraft and Propulsion Architectures
- FlyZero - Climate impact of emissions from aircrafts using alternative fuel and energy systems
- MAGICA - Modelling Aviation Global climate Impacts from Contrails and Aerosols
- TOZCA – Towards Zero Carbon Aviation
Qualifications
- PhD, Environmental Science and Applied Mathematics, University of Leeds, UK
- BSc, Mathematics, University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Teaching Module Qualification, University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Professional memberships
- European Geosciences Union
- American Geophysical Union
Student education
I teach on the following programmes: BSc Environmental Science, BSc Geophysics, BSc Geography with Environmental Mathematics, MSc Climate Futures. I also supervising MRes and BSc dissertations and act as personal tutor for BSc Environmental Science students.
Current group members:
- Dr Masaru Yoshioka (MAGICA PDRA, since 2024)
- Dr Timmy Francis (TOZCA PDRA, since 2021)
- Weiyu Zhang (PANORAMA DTP PhD student, since 2021)
- Sarah McClory (SENSE CDT PhD student, since 2023)
- Kexin Qiu (Aerosol CDT PhD student, since 2024)
Past group members:
- Emily Winter (Aerosol CDT TBS student, 2024, now PhD student at Imperial College London)
- Dr Ailish Graham (FlyZero PDRA, 2021 – 2022, now PDRA at Leeds)
- Dr Matthew Rowlinson (PANORAMA DTP PhD student, PhD Thesis: Sources of variability in short-lived climate pollutants and their effect on climate 2015-2019, now PDRA at NCAS York)
Research groups and institutes
- Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science
- Climate Science and Impacts
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Aerosols