Dr Alex Rap

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:

• AIRIC - Aviation impacts on climate via aerosol-radiation and interactions with clouds (PI, NERC, 2026-2028)
• MAGICA – Modelling Aviation Global climate Impacts from Contrails and Aerosols (PI, NERC, 2024-2027)
• Contrail Assessment of Future Aircraft and Propulsion Architectures (Leeds PI, NERC, 2024-2027)
• Contrails from SAF and H2 combustion; from lab experiments to global mitigation policy (Project partner, NERC, 2024-2027)
• TOZCA – Towards Zero Carbon Aviation (Leeds PI, EPSRC, 2021-2026)

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)

Primary investigator (PI)

• 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

Co-investigator (Co-I)

• Contrail Assessment of Future Aircraft and Propulsion Architectures

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 Weiyu Zhang (since 2024, MAGICA postdoc; PANORAMA DTP PhD student 2021-2025, PhD Thesis: Contrail cirrus climate modelling: uncertainty, microphysical processes and mitigation pathways)
• Dr Masaru Yoshioka (since 2024, MAGICA postdoc)
• Dr Jannetta Richardson (since 2025, CAFAPA postdoc)
• Dr Chris Wells (since 2026, CAFAPA and MAGICA postdoc)
• Sarah McClory (since 2023, SENSE CDT PhD student)
• Kexin Qiu (since 2024, Aerosol CDT PhD student)

Past group members:

• Dr Timmy Francis (2021-2024, TOZCA postdoc; now postdoc at Leeds)
• Emily Winter (2024, Aerosol CDT TBS student; now PhD student at Imperial College London)
• Dr Ailish Graham (2021-2022, FlyZero postdoc; now postdoc at Leeds)
• Dr Matthew Rowlinson (2015-2019, PANORAMA DTP PhD student, PhD Thesis: Sources of variability in short-lived climate pollutants and their effect on climate; now postdoc at NCAS York)

Research groups and institutes

• Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science
• Atmospheric Chemistry and Aerosols
• Land-Atmosphere-Biosphere
• Physical Climate and Cryosphere

Current postgraduate researchers

• Sarah McClory