People

Cliff Elwell is an Associate Professor in Energy Demand and the Built Environment at UCL Energy Institute, where he leads the Physical Characterisation of Buildings group, co-leads the UCL-Energy Buildings Theme, and is Deputy Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy Demand (LoLo).

Cliff’s research interests are primarily in building physics, focussing on characterising the performance of buildings, building systems and building elements through in situ monitoring and analysis using a range of methods. His work often features the application of physically informed models and Bayesian analysis.

Phil Biddulph has a PhD in High Energy Particle Physics. He is a Senior Research Associate at the UCL Energy Institute. Phill’s research interests are primarily in measurement, modelling and analysis of energy use, building fabric, building ventilation and health data. Phill’s research interests build on his experience in Particle Physics and Astrophysics. He has an active interest in applying the tools and techniques – measurement, experimental design, data analysis etc – of these disciplines in the energy demand domain, in relation to relevant policy and economic issues. Phill is actively involved in research on heat loss through building fabric, airborne pollutants, health impacts of building design and use and the analysis and interpretation of energy use data.

Virginia Gori is a Research Fellow at the UCL Energy Institute. Virginia is recipient of an EPSRC Doctoral Prize fellowship funding her post-doctoral research, titled “Bayesian Building Physics: The Rapid Characterisation of Dynamic Building Heat Loss”. This research aims at developing a novel method for the characterisation of whole-building heat transfer.

Virginia has expertise in developing advanced physically informed data analysis techniques for the characterisation of buildings’ performance. She’s also experienced in designing and undertaking long-term monitoring campaigns, and the relative data collection and management process.

Virginia has a PhD in Energy and the Built Environment, which she completed at UCL Energy Institute as part of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy Demand (LoLo). Her doctoral research focused on the development of a novel method for a robust characterisation of the thermophysical properties of building elements from short and seasonal-independent in-situ surveys, overcoming some of the limitations of current methods for the estimation of U-values. Virginia has an MRes in Energy Demand Studies (UCL, UK) and a BSc in Building Engineering (University of Florence, Italy).

Jez Wingfield is Senior Technician in Physical Building Performance at the UCL Energy Institute. Prior to joining UCL, Jez worked with the National Energy Foundation, Willmott Dixon Energy Services, Leeds Metropolitan University and Portakabin. Jez is a materials scientist and process engineer by training with a PhD in Polymer Science, and is a Chartered Engineer and professional member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. He has worked in the area of building energy performance since 2001.  During this time Jez managed the research programmes for several important housing field trials including the Stamford Brook  and Elm Tree Mews. Jez was also involved in the work by the FM Nectar consortium to support the Part L Building Regulation reviews in 2006 and 2010.

Jez has wide ranging experience of collecting site-based performance data and carrying out physical measurements of buildings, and was responsible for developing the whole house co-heating test methodology currently used in the UK. He was a member of the BINDT Airtightness Testing Technical Committee, the ATTMA Airtightness Testing Scheme Governing Committee and the Testing Working Group on the Zero Carbon Hub’s Design versus As-built project.

Jessica Few is in the first year of the 4 year EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy Demand (LoLo) programme, undertaking the MRes Energy Demand Studies. She has a background in physics and is interested in the performance of occupied dwellings, and in particular the variability of the performance. She is studying the ventilation rates in an occupied dwelling for her Master’s research and hopes to continue this to PhD level using statistical pattern recognition techniques such as cluster analysis.

Frances Hollick is an MPhil/PhD student at the UCL Energy Institute as part of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy Demand (LoLo). Her research aims to develop a dynamic method of whole building performance assessment which is minimally complex and intrusive. This builds on research into a static method undertaken as part of an MRes in Energy Demand Studies at UCL. Her background is in physics, and she holds a BSc and MPhys from the University of Warwick.

Naomi Grint is a part-time PhD student at the UCL Energy Institute as part of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy Demand (LoLo). Naomi’s research is on heat and moisture transfer through solid brick walls with and without internal wall insulation. She is interested in the impacts of uncertainty in material properties on moisture accumulation and the potential to infer material properties in-situ. This involves long term in-wall temperature and humidity monitoring of three walls, a sensitivity analysis in DELPHIN and a pilot study using UCL’s Bayesian optimisation software.

Suneina Jangra is a Civil/Structural Engineer who joined UCL as part of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy Demand (LoLo). Her research interests include building fabric performance and energy use in the built environment. Suneina’s current research focuses on the thermal performance of building elements, focusing on heat loss through roofs and the estimation of in-situ U-values in occupied buildings. Suneina holds an MEng from the University of Bristol and an MSc by Research from Coventry University.

Minnie Ashdown is in the first year of the 4 year EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy Demand (LoLo) programme, and her research aims to develop probabilistic methods for a dynamic understanding of air flow and ventilation in existing domestic buildings. She has been working in the charitable sector, and has an undergraduate degree in Astrophysics and MSc in Climate Change Management.