Christos Fountoukis | Hamad Bin Khalifa University

Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute QEERI

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Hamad Bin Khalifa University

FACULTY BIOGRAPHIES

Dr. Christos Fountoukis

Christos Fountoukis (PhD)

Senior Scientist
Sustainable Development
Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute
Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering

Biography

Christos Fountoukis received his PhD from the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering of the Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta, U.S. in 2007. He has been a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow from 2008-2012 and a Project Scientist from 2012-2015 with the University of Patras and the FORTH research institute in Greece. Over the last 20 years he has participated in 15 large-scale integrated projects of the EU and the USA. He has more than 50 journal publications, h-index=30 and 4,304 citations (as of August 2022).

At QEERI, Christos is a Technical Team Leader for the atmospheric research modeling team within the Air Quality & Climate Change research program under the Environment and Sustainability Center. His research focuses on the application of air quality and climate models in the greater region of the Middle East with a special focus on the State of Qatar. He is also interested in atmospheric dust and solar energy forecasting and their effects on PV systems and solar power generation potential. Working closely with the measurement groups, the goal is to better understand the local and regional atmospheric conditions in order to identify efficient mitigation strategies toward a sustainable environment.

 

Research Interests

  • Atmospheric chemistry, air quality modeling and forecasting - early warning systems
  • Climate modeling in the greater area of Middle East
  • Dust storm modeling and operational forecasting in the greater area of Middle East
  • Energy-Meteorology, aerosol – radiation interactions, prediction and forecasting of solar radiation for solar energy applications, atmospheric particle deposition on photovoltaic plants, UV index forecasting
  • Atmospheric dispersion of radionuclides from nuclear power plant accidents - early warning systems

Experience

Senior Scientist

Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar Foundation, Doha, Qatar

2015 - Present

  • Adj. Professor (Joint Appointment)

    Division of Sustainable Development, College of Science & Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Doha, Qatar.

    2017 - 2018

  • Instructor

    Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) on edX platform: Solar Resource Assessment in Desert Climates.

    2019 – Present

  • Project Scientist

    Laboratory of Air Quality Studies, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece.

    2012 - 2015

  • Visiting Scientist - IASS Fellow

    Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (JASS), Cluster: Sustainable Interactions with the Atmosphere, Potsdam, Germany.

    2012

  • Post-doctoral (Marie Curie) Research Fellow

    Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Patras, Greece.

    2008 - 2012

  • Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant

    School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.

    2003 - 2007

Education

PhD in Chemical Engineering

School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA

2007

  • MS in Chemical Engineering

    School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA

    2005

  • BS (Diploma) in Chemical Engineering

    Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

    2002

Selected Publications

  • Fountoukis, C., Y. Mohieldeen, L. Pomares, I. Gladich, A. Siddique, A. Skillern, M.A. Ayoub, Assessment of High-resolution Local Emissions and Land-use in Air Quality Forecasting at an Urban, Coastal, Desert Environment, Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 22 (6), 2022.

  • Roshan, D.R., M. Koc, A. Abdallah, L. Martin-Pomares, R. Isaifan, C. Fountoukis, UV-Index Forecasting under the Influence of Desert Dust: Evaluation against Surface and Satellite-Retrieved Data, Atmosphere, 11 (1), 96, 2020.

  • Fountoukis, C., H. Harshvardhan, I. Gladich, L. Ackermann, M.A. Ayoub, Anatomy of a severe dust storm in the Middle East: Impacts on aerosol optical properties and radiation budget, Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 20, 155-165, 2020.

  • Al-Thani, H., M. Koç, C. Fountoukis, R.J. Isaifan, Evaluation of particulate matter emissions from non-passenger diesel vehicles in Qatar, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 70 (2), 228-242, 2020

  • Roshan, D.R., M. Koc, R. Isaifan, M.Z. Shahid, C. Fountoukis, Aerosol Optical Thickness over Large Urban Environments of the Arabian Peninsula—Speciation, Variability, and Distributions, Atmosphere, 10 (5), 228, 2019.

  • Fountoukis, C., B. Figgis, M.A. Ayoub, L. Ackermann, Effects of atmospheric dust deposition on solar PV energy production in a desert environment, Solar Energy, 164, 94–100, 2018.

  • Fountoukis, C., L. Pomares, D. Perez-Astudillo, D. Bachour, and I. Gladich, Simulating global horizontal irradiance in the Arabian Peninsula: Sensitivity to explicit treatment of aerosols, Solar Energy, 163, 347–355, 2018.

  • Fountoukis, C., M.A. Ayoub, L. Ackermann, D. Perez-Astudillo, D. Bachour, I. Gladich and R.D. Hoehn, Vertical ozone concentration profiles in the Arabian Gulf region during summer and winter: Sensitivity of WRF-Chem to planetary boundary layer schemes, Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 18: 1183–1197, 2018.

  • Fountoukis, C., L. Ackermann, M.A. Ayoub, I. Gladich, R. D. Hoehn, and A. Skillern, Impact of atmospheric dust emission schemes on dust production and concentration over the Arabian Peninsula, Modeling Earth Systems and Environment, 2:115, 2016.
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