Rate My Professor Denis Doorly

Professor Denis Doorly holds the position of Professor of Fluid Mechanics in the Department of Aeronautics within the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College London, a role he has occupied since 2008. Prior to this, he was Reader in Fluid Dynamics in the same department from 1996 to 2008. Doorly completed his undergraduate studies in engineering science at Trinity College Dublin. He then pursued his DPhil at the University of Oxford, researching the influence of wakes shed by a row of guide vanes on boundary layer transition and heat transfer to turbine blades. Following his doctorate, he conducted research on theoretical models of transition in the Mathematics Department at Imperial College London and subsequently at University College London, before returning to Imperial College to join the Department of Aeronautics approximately two decades ago.

Doorly's primary research specializations lie in biomedical fluid mechanics, particularly the essential fluid dynamics of flows in large arteries and airways. His contributions encompass experimental and computational analyses of nasal airflow, respiratory flow patterns, arterial branching and non-planar curvature effects, aerosol transport, and disease transmission mechanisms, including COVID-19 spread assessed via wind tunnel studies. Notable publications include 'Mechanics of airflow in the human nasal airways' (Doorly, Taylor, Schroter; Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology, 2008), 'Non-planar curvature and branching of arteries and non-planar-type flow' (Caro et al.; Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 1996), 'Nasal architecture: form and flow' (Doorly et al.; Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 2008), and 'Simulation of the effects of shock wave passing on a turbine rotor blade' (Doorly, Oldfield; 1985). These works have garnered over 4,000 citations on Google Scholar, underscoring his influence in physiological fluid mechanics. Doorly leads research themes in aerosol transport and modelling and contributes to groups such as Biomedical Flows and Aerosols and Health.