Catherine Noakes | |
---|---|
Alma mater | University of Leeds |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | University of Leeds |
Thesis | Slot Exit Flow Phenomena in Industrial Slide-Fed Coating Systems |
Catherine Jane Noakes OBE FREng FIMechE FCIBSE is a British mechanical engineer who is Professor of Environmental Engineering for Buildings at the University of Leeds. Noakes specialises in airborne infections and the transport of airborne pathogens. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Noakes served on the Government of the United Kingdom Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).
Noakes' parents had careers in computer science and aerospace engineering. [1]
In 1996, Noakes received a BEng in mathematical engineering from the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds. [2] [3] During this time she became interested in the mathematics of fluid dynamics. [1] In 2000, Noakes received a PhD from the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds, where she studied slow exit phenomena in slide-fed curtain coating systems, specifically for coating photographic paper, with a thesis entitled Slot Exit Flow Phenomena in Industrial Slide-Fed Coating Systems. [2]
For a short time Noakes worked with the printing and coating company Delpro in Glossop, including on development of a drier used for coating Euro banknotes. However, in 2002 she moved to an academic post-doctoral position studying airflow and UV-C in disease prevention at the University of Leeds and subsequently gained a permanent position there. [1]
Noakes investigates environmental fluid flow, with a focus on the ventilation of buildings and how this impacts indoor air quality. She develops mathematical models to assess the risk of airborne transmission, expanding on the Wells-Riley equation to include stochastic effects. [4] As part of these efforts, Noakes has led collaborations with the National Health Service and Public Health England to prevent the spread of airborne viruses through hospitals. [5] Airborne transmission is known to be an issue in tuberculosis and influenza. [6] Noakes has developed computational tools to better monitor and control patient environments for infection control. In a presentation at the Bradford Festival of Science, Noakes revealed that one in fifty people acquire an infection during their time in hospital. The impact of these infections, and need for follow-up care, results in a major unnecessary expenditure. [7]
In 2010 Noakes was made Director of the Pathogen Control Research Institute. Noakes is a member of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centre for Doctoral Training in Aerosol Science. [8] Noakes was promoted to Professor in 2014. She serves on the editorial board of the Elsevier journal Building and Environment and the Wiley journal Indoor Air. [9] [10] From 2014 to 2017 Noakes led the University of Leeds Faculty of Engineering Athena SWAN scheme. [2]
In 2016 Noakes started the Low-Energy Ventilation Network (LEVN), a team of people who look to better understand building physics. [11] She has looked to understand whether indoor environments impact the cognitive performance of people inside. [12] She serves as Deputy Director of the Leeds Institute of Fluid Dynamics, and co-directs their Centre for Doctoral Training. [13] [14]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Noakes became interested in the airborne transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the related importance of ventilation to reduce the risk of inhaling small particles containing the virus. [1] In April 2020 Noakes was appointed to the Government of the United Kingdom COVID-19 scientific advisory board. [15] [16] As a result of this work Noakes was one of the recipients of the Royal Academy of Engineering President's Special Awards for Pandemic Service. [17]
Noakes was the guest on the BBC Radio 4 programme The Life Scientific in January 2021. [1]
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. HVAC system design is a subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer. "Refrigeration" is sometimes added to the field's abbreviation as HVAC&R or HVACR, or "ventilation" is dropped, as in HACR.
In medicine, public health, and biology, transmission is the passing of a pathogen causing communicable disease from an infected host individual or group to a particular individual or group, regardless of whether the other individual was previously infected. The term strictly refers to the transmission of microorganisms directly from one individual to another by one or more of the following means:
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to universities in the United Kingdom. EPSRC research areas include mathematics, physics, chemistry, artificial intelligence and computer science, but exclude particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astronomy. Since 2018 it has been part of UK Research and Innovation, which is funded through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering is the largest department at the university. The main site is situated at Trumpington Street, to the south of the city centre of Cambridge. The department is currently headed by Professor Colm Durkan.
Airborne transmission or aerosol transmission is transmission of an infectious disease through small particles suspended in the air. Infectious diseases capable of airborne transmission include many of considerable importance both in human and veterinary medicine. The relevant infectious agent may be viruses, bacteria, or fungi, and they may be spread through breathing, talking, coughing, sneezing, raising of dust, spraying of liquids, flushing toilets, or any activities which generate aerosol particles or droplets.
Duncan Dowson was a British engineer who was Professor of Engineering Fluid Mechanics and Tribology at the University of Leeds.
Dimitris Drikakis, PhD, FRAeS, CEng, is a Greek-British applied scientist, engineer and university professor. His research is multidisciplinary. It covers fluid dynamics, computational fluid dynamics, acoustics, heat transfer, computational science from molecular to macro scale, materials, machine learning, and emerging technologies. He has applied his research to diverse fields such as Aerospace & Defence, Biomedical, and Energy and Environment Sectors. He received The William Penney Fellowship Award by the Atomic Weapons Establishment to recognise his contributions to compressible fluid dynamics. He was also the winner of NEF's Innovator of the Year Award by the UK's Institute of Innovation and Knowledge Exchange for a new generation carbon capture nanotechnology that uses carbon nanotubes for filtering out carbon dioxide and other gases.
A respiratory droplet is a small aqueous droplet produced by exhalation, consisting of saliva or mucus and other matter derived from respiratory tract surfaces. Respiratory droplets are produced naturally as a result of breathing, speaking, sneezing, coughing, or vomiting, so they are always present in our breath, but speaking and coughing increase their number.
The Henry Royce Institute is the UK’s national institute for advanced materials research and innovation.
Anne Neville was the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in emerging technologies and Professor of Tribology and Surface Engineering at the University of Leeds.
Eleanor Phoebe Jane Stride is a Professor of Biomaterials at St Catherine's College, Oxford. Stride engineers drug delivery systems using carefully designed microbubbles and studies how they can be used in diagnostics.
Rebecca Jane Lunn is a British geologist who is a professor and Head of the Centre for Ground Engineering and Energy Geosciences and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Strathclyde.
Allan Matthews (1952) is professor of surface engineering and tribology at the University of Manchester and director of the Digitalised Surfaces Manufacturing Network.
Nora Henriette de Leeuw is the inaugural executive dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at University of Leeds. Her research field is computational chemistry and investigates biomaterials, sustainable energy, and carbon capture and storage.
Shini Somara is a British mechanical engineer, media broadcaster, producer and author. She has presented TechKnow on Al Jazeera America and reporting for various BBC shows including The Health Show. She has also hosted two educational series of physics and engineering videos on the Crash Course YouTube channel for PBS Digital Studios. She has been a presenter on BBC America, Sky Atlantic, BBC1, BBC2, and PBS.
Lydia Bourouiba is an Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Professor, an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering departments, and in the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also a Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Faculty, and Affiliate Faculty of Harvard Medical School. She directs the Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory at MIT.
The transmission of COVID-19 is the passing of coronavirus disease 2019 from person to person. COVID-19 is mainly transmitted when people breathe in air contaminated by droplets/aerosols and small airborne particles containing the virus. Infected people exhale those particles as they breathe, talk, cough, sneeze, or sing. Transmission is more likely the closer people are. However, infection can occur over longer distances, particularly indoors.
Stephen John Haake is a British sports engineer. He is professor of sports engineering at Sheffield Hallam University, England and is founding director of the university's advanced wellbeing research centre.
The UK Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC) was established in January 2011. The ITRC provides data and modelling to help governments, policymakers and other stakeholders in infrastructure make more sustainable and resilient infrastructure decisions. It is a collaboration between seven universities and more than 55 partners from infrastructure policy and practice.
The Wells-Riley model is a simple model of the airborne transmission of infectious diseases, developed by William F. Wells and Richard L. Riley for tuberculosis and measles.