Personal Statement
Dr Jonny Higham is a Reader in Contemporary Processes and Dynamics in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Liverpool, where he has built a rapidly expanding research, innovation and impact profile at the interface of environmental fluid mechanics, air quality science, sensor technologies, image based measurement, modal decomposition and real world environmental monitoring. His work connects fundamental physical science with applied environmental intelligence, using advanced measurement and data analysis to make complex environmental processes visible, understandable and useful for public health, policy, industry and communities.

Since joining Liverpool in 2018, Jonny has established and led a major programme of work in urban air quality, exposure science and environmental sensing. He is the founder and Director of the Liverpool Air Quality Research Centre, LARClarc.liverpool.ac.uk, a University of Liverpool hub for research, training and digital tools addressing urban and port-related air pollution across the Liverpool City Region. LARC builds on Liverpool’s city scale air quality monitoring capability, including fixed sensor networks, wearable exposure devices, calibration, quality assurance, secure data systems, public dashboards and policy-facing analysis. A major strength of Jonny’s work is that he has built new capability from the ground up. Through LARC and Liverpool Sensors, he has developed an end-to-end environmental monitoring ecosystem spanning sensor design, laboratory calibration, field deployment, maintenance, live data infrastructure, visualisation and interpretation. This capability supports local authorities, NHS and health partners, schools, airport and transport monitoring, community organisations, commercial partners and international collaborators, positioning Liverpool as a leading centre for applied air quality monitoring and sensor-led environmental decision support.

Jonny’s work also connects strongly with Liverpool’s wider enterprise and leadership agenda. He is involved with the Liverpool Enterprise and Leadership Academy, LELAlela.liverpool.ac.uk, which supports ambitious Science and Engineering students to develop leadership, innovation, enterprise and commercialisation skills through challenge-led learning, mentorship and engagement with external partners. This reflects a wider theme in Jonny’s academic work: building platforms that do not simply generate research outputs, but create capability, train people, support enterprise and translate university expertise into real world value. His research is strongly impact driven and externally connected. Jonny works closely with Liverpool City Council, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, NHS partners, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, schools, community organisations, industry and international collaborators. He also chairs the Liverpool Air Quality Roundtable, bringing together local authorities, health organisations, researchers, charities, policymakers and industry partners to support joined up action on air quality across the region.

Internationally, Jonny contributes to air quality and environmental monitoring work through Clean Air Africa and related collaborations, including sensor network deployments in Kenya and partnerships with public health and research organisations. His teaching is closely integrated with his research, using live sensor networks, real environmental datasets, policy questions and applied technical challenges to train students in urban air pollution, climatology, environmental monitoring and data driven environmental analysis. Across his career, Jonny has developed a profile that combines scientific originality, infrastructure leadership, enterprise, external partnership, commercial translation and policy relevance. His work spans experimental mechanics, flow analysis, image based measurement, modal decomposition, air quality monitoring, sensor development, public health and urban environmental policy. Increasingly, his contribution lies not only in producing research outputs, but in building the platforms, partnerships and evidence systems through which environmental science can directly shape decisions.

Research Overview
Dr Jonny Higham’s research sits at the interface between environmental fluid mechanics, air quality science, experimental measurement, sensor development and data driven analysis. His work is united by a central aim: to develop better ways of observing, understanding and responding to complex environmental processes in the real world.

His early research focused on experimental fluid mechanics, hydraulics, granular flows and environmental dynamics. During his PhD at the University of Sheffield, Jonny developed and applied modal decomposition techniques to environmental flows, using methods such as Proper Orthogonal Decomposition, Singular Value Decomposition and related data driven approaches to identify dominant structures, coherent patterns and dynamical behaviour in complex flow systems. This work helped transfer advanced analytical methods from engineering fluid mechanics into environmental and geophysical contexts, including river mechanics, hydraulic processes and free-surface flows.

Following his PhD, Jonny worked as an Oak Ridge postdoctoral research fellow with the United States Department of Energy, where he contributed to applied research projects linked to the energy sector. This experience strengthened his expertise in experimental design, advanced diagnostics, image based measurement, and the analysis of complex physical systems under real world constraints.

At Liverpool, Jonny’s research has expanded into urban air quality, environmental sensing and exposure science. He has led the development of the Liverpool Air Quality Research Centre, building a city-region monitoring capability that combines low cost sensor networks, laboratory calibration, field validation, data quality assurance, live data infrastructure and policy-facing analysis. This work supports the deployment of dense monitoring systems capable of capturing spatial and temporal variation in pollutants such as PM2.5, PM10, NO₂ and CO₂ across streets, schools, homes, workplaces, transport corridors and port-related environments.

A major strand of his current research is concerned with making low cost air quality sensors scientifically robust and operationally useful. This includes sensor design, calibration, humidity and temperature correction, co-location with reference instruments, drift detection, uncertainty quantification, quality control pipelines and the development of real time dashboards and APIs. Rather than treating sensors simply as low cost replacements for reference monitors, Jonny’s work explores how dense networks can provide new forms of environmental intelligence: identifying hotspots, tracking changes over time, supporting interventions, improving exposure assessment and helping communities, clinicians and policymakers understand environmental risk.

Jonny’s research is also strongly translational. He works with local authorities, NHS partners, schools, transport operators, airports, Freeport and maritime stakeholders, community groups and international collaborators to apply environmental monitoring to real decision making. His recent projects include citywide air quality monitoring, airport and roadside exposure assessment, portside emissions attribution, indoor air quality and overheating studies, school and community sensor deployments, and the integration of environmental data with health and demographic indicators. Through this work, he is developing approaches that link environmental measurement with policy, public health, behaviour change and place-based intervention.

Internationally, Jonny contributes to Clean Air Africa and related partnerships, supporting the deployment of affordable air quality monitoring systems in data sparse regions. This strand of research focuses on building scalable monitoring capacity, developing robust sensor workflows for challenging environments, and using local data to support public health evidence, government engagement and environmental management.

Across these areas, Jonny’s research combines physical science, engineering, data analytics and impact. His work moves from fundamental questions about flow dynamics and measurement methods through to applied questions about how air pollution is distributed, who is exposed, how reliable low cost sensors can be made, and how environmental data can be turned into action. A defining feature of his research is this connection between methodological innovation and real world deployment: developing tools that are scientifically credible, technically robust and directly useful for improving environmental health.