Kai Hong Luo - Biography#

Professor Luo is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and holds the Chair of Energy Systems at UCL. He is the Head of Energy and the Environment Research Division, providing strategic leadership in both research and education in the fields. A major thrust is to join efforts in the Faculty of Engineering Sciences to accelerate the decarbonization of the energy and transport sectors by developing Net Zero technologies. He leads the UK Consortium on Mesoscale Engineering Sciences (UKCOMES), which has had both national and global impact. Moreover, Prof Luo provides strategic inputs to UK engineering policies as a member of the National Engineering Policy Centre Committee of the Royal Academy.

He completed his PhD in Cambridge University in 1991, under the guidance of Prof Ken Bray FRS and then worked with Prof David Gosman FREng at Imperial College London. His pioneering work contributed significantly to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the early commercial CFD software. He subsequently worked for Queen Mary College, rising through the ranks and becoming a full professor of the University of London in 2002. There he developed cutting-edge high-fidelity direct numerical simulation (DNS) and large eddy simulation (LES) for both fundamental and applied research in aeronautical and mechanical engineering. During 2004-13, he held the Chair of Energy Systems in the University of Southampton, where he created and led a large Energy Technology Research Group, covering the entire spectrum of conventional and renewable energy technologies. In Southampton and later at UCL, Prof Luo developed unique and leading expertise in mesoscale and multiscale modelling and simulation across atomic, micro-, meso- and macroscales for energy and engineering system analysis and prediction. He also led major national research consortia in these fields, with significant European collaborations. His outstanding achievements in research, scholarship, innovation, service and leadership are highly regarded nationally and internationally, as evidenced by prestigious awards he received and his fellowships in major learned societies.