Simon Waldman

Simon Waldman is an Assistant Professor at Heriot-Watt University’s School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, affiliated with the Institute for Life and Earth Sciences. He holds a PhD from Heriot-Watt’s Orkney campus, focusing on tidal energy modeling, and has worked at the University of Edinburgh, Marine Scotland Science, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He is Programme Director for the MSc in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Transition, and a Fellow of the Software Sustainability Institute.

His research integrates renewable energy systems with physical oceanography, emphasizing computational modeling to assess energy potential and environmental impacts. He also advocates for software best practices in scientific research, contributing to reproducibility and open science. Key areas include tidal and wave energy resource characterization, policy implications of energy infrastructure, and climate change effects on marine ecosystems.

Notable achievements include developing hydrodynamic models for the Scottish Shelf and North Sea wind farm planning, and receiving the 2016 ‘Best presentation in category’ award for tidal energy research in Japan. He actively engages in public outreach via events like ‘Skype a Scientist’ and contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to affordable and clean energy (SDG7) and climate action (SDG13).

• Education: PhD in Tidal Energy Modeling from Heriot-Watt University, Orkney.
• Grants & Activities: Involved in datasets like North Sea 2050 wind turbine locations and collaborates internationally on tidal energy projects.
• Labs/Teams: Works within Heriot-Watt’s Institute for Life and Earth Sciences, contributing to interdisciplinary energy transition initiatives.