Academic staff

Professor Mahdi Azerpeyvand - Academic Lead

Mahdi Azarpeyvand is a Professor of Aeroacoustics and Aerodynamics at the University of Bristol. He held a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship position between 2011-2016 and was a member of the Rolls-Royce UTC at the University of Southampton (2003-2011), and the Acoustics group at the University of Cambridge (2011-2013). He joined the University of Bristol in 2013 to establish a new aeroacoustic team. He currently leads the aeroacoustics team at the University of Bristol with over 20 members. He is also currently acting as the academic lead for the UoB Wind Tunnels and the UoB representative to the National Wind Tunnel Facilities. His research is focused on experimental and theoretical aeroacoustics and development of passive/active techniques for reduction of aerodynamic noise. His research is supported by the RAEng, EPSRC, Royal Society, Horizon 2020, CleanSky, and industry (Aircraft Research Association, Embraer, GE, Atomic Weapon Establishment, Vestas). Professor Azarpeyvand has attracted over £6M towards his research and £2.2M for equipment and build of the UoB multi-purpose aeroacoustic facility. His current research activities include: airfoil noise, jet noise and jet installation effects, propeller noise, UAV/UAM aeroacoustics, turbulence interaction noise, porous treatments, micro surface treatments, active flow control, noise propagation effects, etc.

Dr Mohammad Jadidi

Dr Mohammad Jadidi is a Lecturer in Aeroacoustics and Aerodynamics at the University of Bristol. His research integrates high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD), experimental measurement, and both physics-informed and data-driven machine learning to advance the understanding, prediction, and control of complex fluid flows and aerodynamic noise.
Before joining Bristol, he was a Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Manchester, where he led pore-scale large-eddy simulation (LES) studies, developed reduced-order models (ROMs), and applied physics-informed learning to turbulent flows in porous and environmental systems. He also has five years of industry experience as Head of a CFD department, where he led teams and established best-practice modelling frameworks for energy and thermal-fluid applications.
Dr Jadidi holds a PhD in Fluid Mechanics, with a focus on turbulence modelling of heat and mass transfer. His current research interests include aeroacoustics, indoor and outdoor environmental fluid mechanics, porous materials for flow and noise control, and AI-augmented scale-resolving simulations (including LES, DNS, SAS, and hybrid RANS/LES). He is particularly interested in applying data-driven and physics-informed machine learning for the modelling, inference, and control of complex fluid systems.

Dr Esmaeel Masoudi

Dr Masoudi is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Aeroacoustics and Aerodynamics at the University of Bristol. His research lies at the intersection of unsteady aerodynamics, aeroacoustics, and fluid mechanics, with a focus on understanding and controlling complex flow phenomena relevant to sustainable and emerging technologies. His work aims to advance noise reduction and performance enhancement in applications such as wind energy, urban air mobility, and energy harvesting systems.
Dr Masoudi’s research integrates both experimental and numerical approaches to study turbulence, vortical structures, and flow-induced noise. His experimental investigations involve advanced wind tunnel testing, including particle image velocimetry (PIV), unsteady pressure and velocity measurements, and microphone array techniques for aeroacoustic characterization. Complementing these, he employs high-fidelity computational methods such as large-eddy simulations (LES) to gain deeper insight into the underlying flow physics and noise-generation mechanisms.
Before joining the University of Bristol, Dr Masoudi developed extensive experience working on interdisciplinary projects that bridge fundamental fluid dynamics and applied engineering. He actively collaborates with UK and EU research institutions and industry partners to address real-world aerodynamic and aeroacoustic challenges, supporting the design of quieter, cleaner, and more efficient technologies.

Dr Claudia Nicolai

Dr Claudia Nicolai is a Lecturer in Environmental Fluid Mechanics within the School of Civil, Aerospace and Design Engineering. She has developed international experience in fluid mechanics, leading multidisciplinary projects and IP generation in commercial and academic environments. Her research focuses on turbulence-driven transport and dispersion of air pollutants within the atmospheric boundary layer. Through the development of high-accuracy datasets and novel modelling approaches, her work aims to enhance predictive capabilities for sustainable and health-conscious environmental management. Claudia’s methodology is primarily experimental and includes 1) Design of parametric experimental campaign to replicate key environmental phenomena in controlled environment, i.e. wind tunnel or alternative research facility, across multiple spatial scales; 2) Acquisition of high accuracy data of concentration, temperature, velocity and pressure fields mostly using advanced laser-based optical techniques, including Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA), Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF), and infrared thermography; 3) Identification of main insights and data driven modelling.

Dr Djamel Rezgui

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Dr Djamel Rezgui is a Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Engineering with over 16 years of research experience in rotorcraft dynamics, aeroelasticity, aerodynamics and aeroacoustics. His research interests extend to studying the aeroacoustics of novel multi-rotor aircraft configurations and nonlinear dynamics of oscillating aero systems. He worked closely with Leonardo Helicopters within the AgustaWestland UTC (2008-2012) on active rotor systems, leading to the first application of Continuation Methods for certification of production helicopters. Rezgui is a founding member of the UK Vertical Lift Network and he is the UoB PI on the EPSRC funded project (MENtOR) developing new multibody modelling framework for novel rotorcraft t configurations. Rezgui also has a wide experience of collaborating on research programmes with world-class academic and industrial partners, funded by the ATI, EU and the EPSRC. He has been involved in collaborative research funding from Leonardo Helicopters, Airbus, ARA, BAE Systems, Innovate UK (WINDY, DAWS), CleanSky2 (SilentProp, TailSurf) and EPSRC. 

Dr Daniele Zagaglia