New expertise in Civil Engineering

Adrian Robinson, Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering and Architecture, has led multidisciplinary engineering teams on building projects at Ove Arup and Buro Happold. His recent projects have included an academy school by Foster & Partners, a media centre with Allies & Morrison, a museum with Feilden Clegg Bradley and public exhibition buildings with Penoyre & Prasad and Michael Hopkins & Partners.

Lecturer in Energy and Sustainability, Despoina Teli will be teaching bioclimatic design of buildings and cities, human settlements and urban sustainability. She has joined the University of Southampton as she was impressed by its high-quality research conducted in her specialist field. Despoina's research focuses on thermal performance and comfort in buildings, with a special interest in schools and the design of learning environments in a changing climate. Earlier in her career, she worked as a freelance and associate architect.

Senior Teaching Fellow in Design, Alastair McDonald, has worked in professional practice as an architect on a wide range of projects including residential, restaurant, cultural and retail developments and infrastructure. He has also advised on education projects in Birmingham, especially on schools for pupils with special needs. At Southampton, he will teach design and foster innovative design teaching and research across the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment as well as teaching architecture and design within the Civil Engineering programmes.

Dr Yue Zhang, Lecturer in Environmental Engineering, is interested in wastewater treatment. Her research is directly related to current practice in bioenergy production through anaerobic digestion, which is a key research area for both renewable energy and organic waste management. Yue is currently a co-investigator on a European Union FP7 project, focusing on microbial aspects of the anaerobic digestion process to identify the practical benefits in the engineering control of these systems.