Biography

In 2008, Twan van Hooff graduated with honors as a Master of Science in Architecture, Building and Planning, with a specialization in Building Physics (track Physics of the Built Environment) under supervision of prof.dr.ir. Bert Blocken. From July 2008 to July 2012, he was a PhD student at both the Unit Building Physics and Services (BPS) of Eindhoven University of Technology (supervisor prof.dr.ir. Bert Blocken) and the Building Physics Section of KU Leuven, Belgium (double doctorate) (supervisor prof.dr.ir. Tine Baelmans; Department of Mechanical Engineering). In December 2012 he obtained his PhD, at TU/e with honors (cum laude). His PhD study focused on experimental and numerical techniques to assess mixing ventilation, both in a generic setup and in an actual full-scale case study. In addition, he performed numerical studies on pedestrian wind comfort, wind-driven rain and wind energy in the built environment. He also worked in a research team to experimentally and numerically study the aerodynamic performance of a venturi-shaped roof for natural ventilation and wind energy purposes. For one of the publications based on this research he received the Best Paper Award from the leading ISI Journal Building and Environment for the year 2011: van Hooff T, Blocken B, Aanen L, Bronsema B, 2011. A venturi-shaped roof for wind-induced natural ventilation of buildings: wind tunnel and CFD evaluation of different design configurations. Building and Environment 46(9), 1797-1807 (ISI impact factor 2.400). From July 2012 until September 2014 he was active as a postdoctoral researcher in the Climate Proof Cities research program, working on the analysis of climate change adaptation measures at the building scale. From October 2014 until September 2020 he worked as research fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) (personal grant) in the Building Physics Section at KU Leuven, Belgium. From October 2015, he was appointed as Part-time Assistant Professor, and from April 2020 part-time Associate Professor, in the Chair of Building and Urban Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology. From October 2020 he is full-time Associate Professor (with ius promovendi) in the Chair of Building and Urban Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology. Starting May 1 2021, he is the chairman of the Unit Building Physics and Services at Eindhoven University of Technology. 

Apart from his research activities, he has been involved in the bachelor and master education at both Eindhoven University of Technology, and during his FWO fellowship at KU Leuven. In total, he has co-supervised 34 MSc students during their graduation projects and 9 MSc students during their master projects. He is co-supervisor of nine PhD students at KU Leuven and Eindhoven University of Technology and successfully completed the co-supervision of eight PhD students and three PDEng trainees (daily supervision). In addition, he currently (co-)supervises 2 postdoctoral researchers.

He has published 71 ISI journal papers, 18 of which as first author, and 108 papers in international conference proceedings so far. He is editorial board member of the Journal of Building Physics and the Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, and reviewer for 60 ISI journals. In addition, he was member of the Scientific Committee for 14 international scientific conferences since 2011. Finally, he has been reviewer for research grants in, e.g., the Netherlands (NWO), Germany (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), UK (Natural Environment Research Council), and Hong Kong (Research Grants Council (RGC)). 

Since 2009 he has secured a range of national and international research grants (2nd and 3rd tier funding) and has been involved in over 26 collaborative research projects with a variety of companies (3rd tier funding). Last years, he has been active in the research programs CLAIRE (Clean Air for Everyone), P3Venti (Program for Pandemic Preparedness by Ventilation), and MIST (MItigation STrategies for Airborne Infection Control), Sky High - Vertical Farming: a revolution in plant production, Towards Smart Ventilation, and NudgeFlow.