Akintunde Babatunde

Dr Akintunde Babatunde is an Associate Professor in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Leeds and a core member of water@leeds. A Chartered Engineer and Chartered Environmentalist, he specializes in experimental and numerical approaches to water quality challenges from cloud to coast, with expertise in designing bespoke treatment systems and pollution control frameworks at multiple scales.

His educational qualifications include a PhD in Civil Engineering from University College Dublin (2007), an MSc (2003), and BSc (2000) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He gained industry experience before commencing doctoral studies.

Professor Babatunde's research centers on sustainable water and wastewater engineering, with emphasis on constructed wetlands, digital twins, and circular economy applications. His work integrates advanced treatment technologies for nutrient removal (particularly phosphorus and nitrogen), bioelectrochemical systems, and AI-driven predictive modeling for pollutant dynamics. Current projects focus on resource recovery and system optimization for urban and agricultural water challenges.

Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals dominant themes in constructed wetland innovation (60% of works), with growing integration of machine learning for performance prediction (20%) and expanding applications in bioenergy and healthcare security (20%). The research demonstrates consistent progression from fundamental wetland mechanics toward digital integration and circular economy implementation.

His scientific recognition includes:

• Green Talent award (2009) from the German Federal Minister of Education
• Irish Research Council and EU Marie Curie Joint Postdoctoral Fellowship (2010)

Professor Babatunde has secured over £9 million in research funding as PI/co-I, including Irish government projects (2007-2011) for agricultural catchment modeling, Enterprise Ireland funding for treatment scaling, and Welsh Water collaboration (2012) on phosphorus removal. He currently supervises PhD researcher Fika Nikendary and teaches Wastewater Engineering (CIVE3420) and Advanced Wastewater Management (CIVE5535M) across BEng, MEng, and MSc programs.

He serves as Africa regional coordinator for the International Water Association's constructed wetlands group and as Editor for Water Science and Technology Journal, maintaining extensive global collaborations through water@leeds and the EPSRC Peer Review College.