Prashant Valluri

Professor Prashant Valluri is a Personal Chair in Fluid Dynamics at the University of Edinburgh's School of Engineering, where he also serves as Director of Discipline and Head of Graduate School (since 2018). His research focuses on developing mathematical models for complex multiphase flow patterns to address industrial challenges including oil-gas transport, slurry transport, distillation, absorption, thermal management of microdevices, and biological problems such as cerebral temperature regulation and lung function.

Professor Valluri earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London in 2004 with a thesis on "Multiphase fluid dynamics in structured packings" and holds a Bachelor of Technology (Distinction) in Chemical Engineering from Dr. BA Technological University, Lonere, India (1998). He is an active member of several professional organizations including the American Association for Advancement of Science, American Physical Society, and Indian Society for Surface Science Technologists.

His research expertise spans multiphase and single-phase fluid dynamics, transport phenomena, stability theory and turbulence, and biological fluid dynamics. Professor Valluri has developed several open-source computational tools including the Two Phase Level Set (TPLS) Solver for high-resolution DNS of multiphase flows, the Vascular Porous (VaPor) Solver for simulating biological temperatures, and the Gerris Immersed Solid Solver (GISS) for solid-fluid flow simulations. His work has significant applications in industrial cleaning, oil-gas transport, thermal management of microdevices, and cerebral temperature regulation.

Professor Valluri's recent research publications demonstrate a strong focus on multiphase flows, droplet dynamics, boiling heat transfer, and computational fluid dynamics. His work combines theoretical modeling with high-performance computing to solve complex fluid dynamics problems across various scales, from microdevices to industrial applications. The research shows particular strength in Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) techniques applied to multiphase systems.

• Member of American Association for Advancement of Science
• Member of American Physical Society
• Member of Indian Society for Surface Science Technologists
• Associate Member of IChemE
• Invited JSPS Fellow at Kyushu University (2018)
• Extraordinary Professor at University of Pretoria (2019)

Professor Valluri has supervised numerous PhD students to completion, including Dr. Pedro J Sáenz (2014), Dr. Pei Shui (2015), Dr. Patrick Schmidt (2017), Dr. Stephen Blowers (2018), and several others through 2021. He has secured significant research funding for projects including ACoolTPS (Advanced Cooling of high power microsystems using Two-Phase Flows Systems) and ThermaSMART (Smart Thermal Management Of High-power Microprocessors Using Phase-change). His research group, the Institute for Multiscale Thermofluids, focuses on Multiphase Flows and Transport Phenomena.

Professor Valluri leads the Multiphase Flows and Transport Phenomena Special Interest Group of the UK Fluids Network and has established extensive international collaborations with institutions including Imperial College London, University College Dublin, Université de Lyon, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, MIT, Stanford University, and Kyushu University.