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Dr Alex Rap

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:

Past projects:

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

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:

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

Current postgraduate researchers

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>