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Azimil Gani Alam

Azimil Gani Alam

Employee

Azimil Gani Alam is holding an bachelor and master’s degree in mechanical engineering (ventilation & indoor air quality study) from University of Indonesia and Kookmin University South Korea with over six years of enthusiastic and certified experience in building energy and ventilation audits in Indonesia, Azimil Gani Alam has honed his expertise in this critical field.

He is now pursuing a PhD at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, focusing on developing a Novel User-Oriented Building Management System to Optimize Indoor Environment control in Educational Buildings under DiggMinSkole’s project with supervision and coordination by NILU, NAAF and Oslo Kommune.

Luca Pozzoli

Luca Pozzoli

Employee

Dr Luca Pozzoli, PhD serves as Senior scientist, Manager of the European Topic Centre on Human health and the Environment (ETC-HE), currently posted at Kjeller, Norway.

He has a MSc degree in Environmental Sciences from the Faculty of Science, Milano-Bicocca University, Milano, IT. His PhD in Environmental Engineering is from the Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, CH.

His research interests include the relationship between atmospheric chemistry and climate interactions, human health and well-being and the environment, integrated assessment, human exposure assessment for air pollution, and the science for policy support.

Luca started at NILU as a senior scientist in June 2023, to be part of the management and coordination team of the ETC-HE, a consortium of 10 partners with expertise in air quality, air pollution, industrial emissions, chemicals, noise and environmental health. The ETC-HE is one of the eight centres of thematic expertise in environmental issues contracted by the European Environment Agency (EEA). The ETC-HE is a partner of the European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet) to gather and develop data, knowledge, and advice to policy makers about Europe's environment.

Before joining NILU, he worked for eight years at the European Commission – Joint Research Centre. He conducted scientific research and acted as project leader and manager of two projects about the Arctic, on the impacts of European and global air quality and climate policies on the environmental, climate and societal impacts of a changing Arctic. He also contributed to the further development and application of an Impact Assessment Model that provides information about the air quality impacts and costs on health, crops and ecosystems.

Vasileios Salamalikis. Portrett

Vasileios Salamalikis

Employee

Dr. Vasileios Salamalikis serves as a researcher at Stiftelsen NILU in Kjeller, Norway. He holds a PhD in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Patras, Greece, where his research centered on analyzing global isotopic patterns in meteoric precipitation and their linkages to both historical and contemporary climate dynamics.

Currently, Vasileios focuses on air quality monitoring and modeling in indoor and outdoor environments, leveraging low-cost sensor technologies to identify and predict urban climatic conditions through the analysis of atmospheric and environmental datasets.

His academic interests encompass a wide range of topics, including isotope climatology, solar irradiance modeling, urban air pollution, development and application of quality control and AI/ML tools for atmospheric and environmental applications. Through his research, Vasileios is dedicated to understanding issues and refining methodologies for environmental monitoring and modeling, contributing to the sustainable development of urban and regional environments.

Marc Peñalver Grau

Marc Peñalver Grau

Employee

Marc Peñalver Grau is an EU Project Manager at NILU, bringing a background in sustainable urban planning and citizen engagement. He holds a MSc in Nordic Urban Planning, a joint master's degree from Roskilde University (Denmark), Malmö University (Sweden), and Tromsø University (Norway). His studies equipped him with a broad set of social tools and a critical perspective on urban spaces. 

Marc has developed a holistic approach to urban planning, integrating social, economic, and technical perspectives. Additionally, he has expertise in project management, and his main interest lays in creating lasting impacts in developing urban areas. 

At NILU, Marc plays an important role in citizen engagement. He has developed a wide range of communication campaigns to encourage citizen participation in more than 10 cities both in Norway and Europe and over 15 workshops to understand community needs around air pollution and environment in general. 

Miha Markelj

Employee

Miha Markelj has been working as a research assistant at NILU since 2022, focusing on emissions of air pollutants into ambient air from different perspectives. He works with emission and dispersion models, develops new data collection processes and works on enhancing resolution of models. His work often involves acquiring, processing and interpreting unstructured data. Among others, he contributes to projects for municipalities and industry, as well as to data reporting projects for EEA.

Miha earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Amirhossein Hassani

Amir Hassani

Employee

Amir is an Environmental Data Scientist with a PhD from the University of Manchester, where his research focused on modelling large-scale processes near Earth's surface, particularly under current and projected climate conditions.

At NILU, his research is currently focused on enhancing the utility of novel low-cost sensor networks by integrating data from static, mobile, and wearable sensors with complementary datasets such as satellite remote sensing, air quality models, and citizen-contributed information.

His core competencies include machine learning, spatial analysis, and statistical data analytics, all of which he applies to investigate the physical, human, and policy dimensions of global environmental change. He is particularly interested in the drivers and impacts of changes in areas such as air quality, climate, urbanization, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. His work supports theoretically and empirically robust insights to advance knowledge on environmental change and its implications for society.

Alena Bartonova

Alena Bartonova

Employee

Dr. Alena Bartonova’s core research area is environmental exposure assessment. Her work rests on high levels of interdisciplinary collaboration and often supports science use for policies. She is interested in environmental/air quality assessment methods combining results from monitoring and diverse measurement technologies (including low-cost sensors) with models, resulting in a basis for health impact assessment, and in development of methods for practical use.

Alena has a MSc and a RNDr degree in Probability and Mathematical Statistics from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, CZ, and PhD in Environmental Sciences from the Faculty of Science of the same University. She started at NILU as a post doc 1987-1990, when she was studying environmental epidemiology methods and the relationship between air pollution and material damage.

Alena has served in several positions of trust nationally and internationally, including as in expert groups within the fifth and seventh Framework Programs for research of the EU, and as a member of SCHER 2013-2016. She has coordinated or co-coordinated several EU-co-funded research and innovation projects. Alena serves as Research Director - coordinator for EU research and Manager, European Topic Center for human health and environment.

Tore Flatlandsmo Berglen

Tore Flatlandsmo Berglen

Employee

Dr. Tore Flatlandsmo Berglen is a senior researcher at the Department of Urban Environment and Industry. He received his PhD in Geosciences at the University of Oslo in 2006 with a thesis on the sulphur cycle in the atmosphere, with a particular focus on natural and anthropogenic emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and sulphate particles.

Tore has worked at NILU since 2008 and leads various industrial projects concerning monitoring of air quality close to industrial facilities, dispersion calculations and CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage).

For a number of years, he was responsible for the monitoring project in the border areas with Russia. Air quality in the border areas was strongly affected by emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and heav metals (Nnickel, copper, cobalt and arsenic) from Russian smelters in Nikel and Zapolyarny. The smelter in Nikel was shut down in December 2020 and there was an upgrade of the briquetting plant in Zapolyarny. Emissions fell sharply, and thus the air quality in the border areas has also improved. Tore also has other projects in Eastern Finnmark, including studies of the environmental impact of war remnants, moss sampling and analysis, and dioxins around Kirkenes.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is becoming an increasingly important field in terms of transition and the path towards a zero-emission society. Amines are a well proven technology for capturing CO2, but there have been concerns about the release of amines and degradation products from amines, especially nitrosamines and nitramines. NILU has many projects to study emissions from CCS facilities and environmental impact.

Tore also works with dispersion calculations from industrial companies and influence on a local and regional scale. These are projects for both the oil and gas industry and metal industry.

Núria Castell

Núria Castell

Employee

Núria Castell, Senior Scientist at NILU, is the coordinator of the Technology and Society group, leading national and international research projects focused on the uptake and validation of novel sensor technologies and the integration of citizen observations in policy and research.

She is currently coordinating the Horizon Europe CitiObs project, aiming at enhancing Citizen Observatories for urban environmental monitoring in 85 cities in Europe.

Núria’s academic pursuits encompass a wide-ranging spectrum of fields, including sustainable urban development, citizen science, environmental governance, planetary health, urban living labs experimentation and the intersection of science and art.

Núria also holds the position of co-chair of the Citizen Science Global Partnership group on Scaling-up citizen science Air-quality monitoring and the European Citizen Science Association's working group on air quality.

Henrik Grythe

Henrik Grythe

Employee

Dr. Henrik Grythe serves as a senior researcher at NILU posted at Kjeller, Norway.

His Msc. in meteorology is from the University of Oslo and his PhD is in atmospheric physics from Stockholm University. There he worked with quantifying emission sources, and the dispersion and removal of both natural and anthropogenic aerosol particles as well as short-lived pollutants.

He specializes in climate and air pollution relevant problems where a high temporal and spatial resolution is required, working with a broad range of methods and data sources.

He has a long experience working with models and model development for several atmospheric and emission models and has a leading role in the development of both new and existing methods and numerical models.

He actively disseminates scientific knowledge through various media channels to the public, engages in communication with government and stakeholders, and participates in scientific conferences. His h-index is 17, with a total of 2,500 citations (Google Scholar).

Claudia Hak

Claudia Hak

Employee

Dr. Claudia Hak is a senior scientist in the Department for Urban Environment and Industry at NILU. She obtained her PhD in physics at the University of Karlsruhe in 2006 with a focus on the measurement of formaldehyde and other compounds involved in photooxidation processes that occur in polluted air around cities. 

Claudia has been working at NILU since 2009. She is a measurement expert and leads specially designed measurement projects with a focus on the effect of emissions from industry, traffic and other pollution sources on ambient air. 

Claudia is also interested in the composition of urban air and the pollution sources in cities and in this context studies advanced particle measurements (based on the composition of the particles) taken in Oslo. She has contributed to the establishment of the Urban Observatory in Oslo, which has a strong focus on particle characterization and the health effects of particles. Another area of work is within the National Reference Laboratory for Air Quality Measurements, where she guides measurement network owners with regard to the choice of reference measurement location. She is also interested in evaluating the differences between the accepted reference and equivalent measurement methods for particulate matter. 

Paul

Paul David Hamer

Employee

Dr. Paul Hamer is a Researcher within the Urban Environment and Industry department at NILU.

He has a PhD in atmospheric chemistry from the University of Bristol. He has over 20 years of experience working in the field of atmospheric sciences and has published on a broad range of research topics. His core expertise is in working with numerical models of the atmosphere and land surface and in working with data assimilation and satellite observations.

He has a strong interest in air quality, climate change, and land surface processes. As such, his recent research has focused on the impacts that climate and extreme weather have on surface fluxes (deposition and emissions) of air pollutants and their precursors.

Furthermore, he has a strong interest in providing a vital link between air quality science and policymakers through his activities within the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service.

Paul is motivated by the need to provide scientific knowledge to society to help decision making in relation to air quality management and climate change policy.

Britt Ann Høiskar

Britt Ann Kåstad Høiskar

Employee

Dr. Britt Ann K. Høiskar holds the position of Research Director in the Department for Urban Environment and Industry at NILU. She earned her doctoral degree in physics from the University of Oslo in 1997, with a research focus on measurement of the ozone layer and ozone-depleting substances in the stratosphere from ground-based measurements.

During the period from 1997 to 2007, Høiskar served as a senior researcher at NILU. Her responsibilities included overseeing the operation and maintenance of the national system for monitoring the ozone layer and natural ultraviolet radiation (2001-2004). She was also involved in the development and management of an internet solution for presenting, quality control, and analysis of air quality data from the measurement network for air quality in Norwegian cities (2003-2006).

From 2008 to 2013, Høiskar held the position of Head of the Norwegian Asthma and Allergy Association, where she was responsible for the organization’s policies and projects related to outdoor air pollution and indoor air quality.

Since January 2014, Høiskar has been a senior researcher in the Urban and Industrial Department at NILU. In June 2017, she assumed the role of Research Director and department leader. Høiskar has led and participated in air quality assessments for several Norwegian cities. Furthermore, she is and has been involved in various research projects related to the indoor environment. She has been the chairman/board member of Norsk Innemiljøorganisasjon, which represents the Norwegian branch of ‘The International Society for Indoor Air Quality and Climate’ (www.isiaq.org). since 2009.

Susana Lopez-Aparicio

Susana Lopez-Aparicio

Employee

Dr Susana López-Aparicio is a Senior Scientist and Deputy Director of the Urban Environment and Industry department at NILU, where she coordinates research and activities related to air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions.

With over 10 years of experience on emission modelling, her work focuses on developing high spatial and temporal resolution models to support air pollution control, climate mitigation strategies, and urban sustainability. She has led key projects delivering high-resolution gridded emissions for Norway, including the NordicWelfAir, NordSmoke, and EMISYS projects, and advanced emission models for residential wood consumption (METVED model).

Her main goal is to advance scientific knowledge and address environmental challenges faced by public authorities and the private sector. She has managed research projects targeting emissions from diverse sectors, including biofuels, biomass burning, construction machinery, transport hubs (e.g., port and airport), and tourism.

She also serves as reviewer and lead reviewer of national emission inventories submitted under the UNECE Convention of Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP), and the National Emission reduction Commitment Directive (NEC Directive).

She has coauthored 44 peer-reviewed publications, and her h-index is 25 (Google Scholar; December 2024).

Gabriela Sousa Santos

Gabriela Sousa Santos

Employee

Dr. Gabriela Sousa Santos did her graduate studies in Environmental Engineering in the University of Aveiro, Portugal. While studying the ways pollution is transported and transformed in the environment, she got curious on how these pollutants affect human health. Thus, she continued studying Toxicology in her post-graduation while working in Environmental Impact Assessment Studies.

She did her PhD in atmospheric chemistry at Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg. It was here that she started using numerical modelling in global scales to analyze the role of naturally emitted halogen compounds on the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere. She then started also simulating salt particles and continued into secondary organic aerosols and their impact on the global radiation budget, work she continued in ETH, Zurich.

At NILU, she has moved into modelling at the local scale, which leads her to investigate the specificities and challenges in creating simulations at this scale of the transport of pollution.

Her current interests are in investigating which policy options will lead to healthier, more comfortable cities for higher quality of life and more sustainability globally. Cities have the characteristic of high population concentration which creates higher exposition to pollution and enhanced risk to climate change, however it also creates opportunities for higher efficiency systems in the use of resources.

Philipp Schneider

Philipp Schneider

Employee

Dr. (Mr.) Philipp Schneider is a senior research scientist at NILU.

He received his PhD in 2008 from the University of California-Santa Barbara focusing on satellite remote sensing and spatial data analysis. Subsequently he held a position as postdoctoral research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology.

Philipp has extensive experience in the application of satellite remote sensing techniques for mapping and monitoring the environment. His current research focuses primarily on the use of satellite remote sensing data for applications in atmospheric composition and air quality.

Previously he has worked on multiple projects related to exploitation and validation of satellite-based land and lake surface temperature. In addition, he works on developing methods and tools to carry out geostatistical data fusion and data assimilation for combining air quality observations with model data to improve urban- and regional-scale mapping of air quality.

He acts as a reviewer for multiple scientific publications related to satellite remote sensing, air quality, and the environment. He has given over 200 presentations at international scientific conferences and workshops and has authored dozens of technical reports.

Philipp has been appointed a member of the Research Council of Norway National Reference Group for Horizon Europe Cluster 4 on Digital, industry and space. He is author of 45 peer-reviewed journal publications, with over 5500 citations and an h-index of 26.

Sam-Erik Walker

Employee

Sam-Erik Walker holds an M.Sc. in Statistics and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Oslo.

He has over 30 years of experience developing and applying air pollution dispersion models for cities and urban areas and analysing air quality data using various numerical and statistical tools and methods. These include deterministic and probabilistic methods for model evaluation and validation, data assimilation, ensemble modelling, and data fusion to combine air quality observations with model results. He is one of the principal authors of several of the present models at NILU, including the urban air pollution dispersion model EPISODE.

He is also the leading developer behind the AirGAM trend and prediction model at NILU. This model enables the estimation of meteorology-adjusted long-term trends of air pollutants such as NO2, O3, PM, and VOCs at air quality stations in Norway and Europe. It has been used to quantify the effects of lockdowns during the recent COVID-19 pandemic and for estimating long-term trends for all EEA stations in Europe.

Recently, he developed the AirRisk model, a risk assessment model to quantify the risk or probability of exceeding limit values of NO2 and PM in connection with recent assessment studies in various Norwegian cities and urban areas, including Lørenskog, Drammen, and Oslo.

He actively disseminates scientific knowledge by writing reports and papers and regularly participates in scientific conferences. His primary motivation for working at NILU is to contribute to a cleaner world.

Torleif_Weydahl

Torleif Weydahl

Employee

Torleif Weydahl is a senior scientist in the Department of Urban Environment and Industry and has worked at NILU since 2017. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering specializing in energy and process technology and has a doctorate from the University of Trondheim (NTNU) in modeling of turbulent mixing and reactions. 

At NILU, Torleif primarily works on air quality (AQ) assessments related to requirements within Norwegian regulation and in emission permits for Norwegian municipalities and industrial companies. He conducts emission and dispersion calculations for several source sectors, including analyses and the preparation of reports and documentation. He has developed AQ assessment and action plans for several Norwegian municipalities and has led the development of NERVE, an emission model for road traffic. 

Torleif contributes to the European Environment Agency's (EEA) topic centers, focusing on reporting emissions from the industrial sector in EU and EEA member countries. He is also an experienced project manager. 

Before starting at NILU, Torleif gained experience in carbon capture and storage research from SINTEF in Trondheim and in consultancy related to fire and safety at Lloyd's Register.