Professor Lee Chapman PhD FRMetS FHEA

• BSc Geography (University of Sheffield, 1998)
• PhD Geography (University of Birmingham, 2002)
• PG Cert in Learning & Teaching (University of Birmingham, 2009)

Professor Lee Chapman completed his PhD entitled "A Blueprint for 21st Century Road Ice Prediction" here in Birmingham. The aim of the project was to assimilate the then emerging GIS and GPS technologies to develop the next generation of road weather prediction models (Route Based Forecasting). The main application was to accurately forecast road surface temperatures enabling optimal salt usage by local councils.  A university spin-out company called Entice Technology Ltd was set up commercialise the work. The business was sold in 2006 to Weather Services International Ltd. 

Professor Chapman is still actively involved in research and business engagement with respect to winter road maintenance. He is past President (now secretary) of the Standing International Road Weather Commission (SIRWEC) and CEO of Altasense, a University Operating Division selling Internet of Things weather monitoring solutions to highway and railway engineers.  The flagship product 'wintersense' was licensed to Campbell Scientific Ltd in 2019 and is now marketed across the world. 

He was awarded the 2013 RGS Cuthbert Peek award for advancing knowledge of urban climatology through GIS and remote sensing, the 2014 RMetS Innovation Award for ‘making meteorological measurements that matter’ and the 2017 Harry Otten Prize for Innovation in Meteorology.   He became Professor of Climate Resilience in 2016 and has co-authored all three of the UK Climate Change Risk Assessments.

Professor Lee Chapman is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has a significant teaching profile which spans several programmes of study.

His teaching methods and assessment strategies were informed by studying for a PGCert in Learning and Teaching which Professor Chapman completed in 2009. He was nominated for a prize in Level 1 of the course and won a prize for Level 2 where he had his teaching project published:

Chapman, L. (2010) Dealing with maths anxiety: How do you teach mathematics in a geography department? Journal of Geography in Higher Education 34:205-213.

Postgraduate supervision Professor Chapman has supervised 19 students to completion and currently supervises postgraduate students: Yongjian Li: Extending the utility of connected vehicles for winter road maintenance (Chinese Scholarship Council / Li Siguang) Chenguang Xiao: Federated learning for internet of things networks (School Studentship) Yanzhi Lu: The role of trees in reducing the impact of environmental stressors (Self-Funded) Nicole Cowell: Distributed measurements of particulate matter (Self-Funded) Nigar Parvin: Using green infrastructure to improve human health (Funded by Prime Minister Bangladesh Fellowship) Potential students should contact Professor Chapman directly.

Professor Lee Chapman’s research interests are at the interface of climatology and engineering investigating the impact of weather and climate on the built environment; an important research area given the ever-increasing concentration (and vulnerability) of the population and critical infrastructure in urban areas. This covers a range of topics and sub-disciplines including infrastructure meteorology, urban climatology and climate change adaptation.  Knowledge transfer, impact and business engagement are at the heart of this research agenda and underpins much of his work.

• Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute
• Member of the NERC Advisory Network
• Member of the EPSRC ICT Strategic Advisory Team
• Member of the NERC Peer Review College and EPSRC Peer Review College
• Secretary of the Standing International Road Weather Commission
• Associate editor of Transport Behaviour and Society