Janet Barlow is a Scottish scientist and professor of environmental physics at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

. She is an

experimental physicist Experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines in the field of physics that are concerned with the observation of physical phenomena and experiments. Methods vary from discipline to discipline, from simple experiments and o ...

who has made significant contributions to our understanding of urban meteorology, with particular regards to

weather forecasting Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology forecasting, to predict the conditions of the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia a ...

, urban sustainability, indoor and outdoor

air quality Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...

, building ventilation, and environmental

wind engineering Wind engineering is a subset of mechanical engineering, structural engineering, meteorology, and applied physics that analyzes the effects of wind in the natural and the built environment and studies the possible damage, inconvenience or benefits w ...

Education and research career

Barlow completed a BSc in Applied Physics with German at

UMIST The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research. On 1 Oct ...

in 1994, followed by an MSc in Applied Meteorology and Agriculture at the

in 1995. In 1999, Barlow completed a PhD on the turbulent transfer of space charge in the atmospheric boundary layer at the

. After a 3-year postdoctoral research associate post, she took up a lectureship at the

in 2002. From 2011 to 2014, Barlow was director of the Centre for Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments (TSBE) at the University of Reading.

Urban meteorology

Barlow's work is largely experimental in nature, using both wind-tunnel based physical modelling, and urban observational campaigns. Using a unique observatory at the top of the

BT Tower The BT Communication Tower is a grade II listed communications tower located in Fitzrovia, London, owned by BT Group. Originally named the Museum Radio Tower (after the adjacent Museum telephone exchange), it became better known by its unoff ...

in London, Barlow has researched the effect of weather and climate on urban pollutants and air quality. In addition to urban meteorology, she has studied boundary layer flow effects around wind farms and integration of renewable energy into the energy system. Barlow has also research the effect of urban environments on the generation of wind energy.

Recognition and community duties

2010-14 Member of Board of Urban Environment, American Meteorological Society 2003-7 Elected Member of Board of the International Association of Urban Climate. 2017- Member of UK Met Office Scientific Advisory Committee

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barlow, Janet Living people Environmental scientists Scottish meteorologists Year of birth missing (living people)