Professor Zia Wadud

Profile

Dr Zia Wadud is a Professor of Mobility and Energy Futures at the University of Leeds. He has multidisicplinary expertise as an engineer and econometrician in transport-automation interactions, transport and energy demand, decarbonizing transport and data analysis in national and international context. His recent works on the impacts of vehicle automation, and vehicle sharing (ridesourcing/TNCs), long-distance travel, and multi-country comparison of costs and adoption of EVs gained not only academic, but also international media attention (Times, New York Times, Guardian, Business Insider, MIT Tech Review, etc.). Other recent works include heterogeneity and asymmetry in transport and energy demand, quantitative impact modeling of energy transition in transport, implications of autonomous vehicles, peak car, transport energy poverty and innovative carbon mitigation policies (e.g. personal carbon trading).

He has served as a member of three expert committees of the Transportation Research Board of the US National Academy of Sciences and also acted as the Honorary Secretary and elected Executive Committee member of the Universities’ Transport Studies Group in the UK. He has published over 80 article in leading academic journals, and is among the top 1% cited transport researchers in the world. His research has been funded by EPSRC, Marie-Curie Programme of the EU, Wellcome Trust, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, among others.

Prof. Wadud holds a joint appointment with the Institute for Transport Studies and School of Chemical and Process Engineering within the University of Leeds. He has graduated from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, did a Masters in Development Technologies from University of Melbourne, and completed his PhD from Imperial College London. Prior to joining Leeds, he had worked at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At Leeds, he is also currently the Head of Faculty GraduateI School for the Faculty of Environment, responsible for all matters related to PhD researchers in the faculty (includes four schools: ITS, School of Geography, School of Earth, Environment and Sustainability and School of Food Science and Nutrition).

Responsibilities

• Head of Graduate School, Faculty of Environment

Research interests

• Transport, energy and environmental interaction
• Impact of vehicle automation and new mobility services
• Decarbonising transport and its other implications
• Energy and travel demand
• Long distance travel
• Econometric modelling of tansport and energy data
• Innovative energy policies (e.g. personal carbon trading)
• Transport and energy in developing countries
• Integrated modelling
• Aviation

• Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions
• Modelling the energy and environmental impacts of ride-hailing and ride-sharing services in India leveraging the passive data sources
• Modelling the links between transport, air quality and COVID-19 spread using naturalistic data from Dhaka, Bangladesh

Qualifications

• PhD, Imperial College London
• MDevTech, University of Melbourne
• MSc (Engg), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
• BSc (Engg), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

Professional memberships

• Fellow, Energy Institute

Student education

Prof Wadud leads the Master Module on Energy and Sustainable Transport in School of Chemical and Process Engineering. He also teaches at the masters level modules at ITS. He supervises student dissertation projects at postgraduate and PhD levels at ITS, SCAPE, Civil Engg and the SEES.