Dr Lekan Popoola

Focus of research

As a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Atmospheric Science, my research centres on a problem of huge significance -- air quality and its impact on human health. My main research focus has been to successfully develop and deploy sensors and sensor networks for a range of studies including air pollution assessment, exposure and health studies, and greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring. Our new approaches allow us to extract previously unrecorded data, which provide much-needed evidence and support for policies and interventions.

Other aspects of my research include investigating how observations from both sensor and reference networks can be utilised in improving the performance of air quality models, including data assimilation for refinement of emission inventories, pollution forecasts and footprint analysis in urban and, more recently, in agricultural and rural environments.

Projects

I have made significant contributions to several research projects on low-cost sensors (LCS) in the UK including Sensor Network for Air Quality at London Heathrow airport (SNAQ-Heathrow Project), the C40/CIFF funded Breathe London pilot project and network of LCS research-COP26 in Glasgow. International projects I have worked on include the NERC funded Air Pollution and Human Health (APHH) in China, the BELIEVE study in Bangladesh, the EU Citisense project, GCRF funded air pollution studies in Kenya and Royal Academy ALPHA project in Cameroon and Nigeria and a recently started collaboration on the Air Quality Management Community of Practice in Africa Project. My current research work is the NERC funded Landscape Regeneration Solutions to the Interlinked Extinction and Climate Crises that support Sustainable Development (UCAM-Regen), where I am contributing to the atmospheric observations using sensor network approach, data assimilation and developing a novel low-cost flux device.

Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry

I joined the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge in 2012 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and I am currently a Senior Research Associate, working most closely with Professor Rod Jones and Dr Chiara Giorio.