MALIK SAFI ULLAH
Bologna, Italy
Exploring how air moves through cities.
And how we can shape it for the better.
URBAN AIRFLOW
A conceptual view of an invisible world.
A CROSS-BORDER PERSPECTIVE
Università di BolognaUniversity of CyprusNUST, Islamabad01 / SELECTED RESEARCH
From idealised canyons
to real urban neighbourhoods.
Using computational science to understand the relationship between urban form, vegetation and the air we breathe.
EARLIER WORK / 2021–2023
Urban microclimate and outdoor thermal comfort in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. ENVI-met modelling, geospatial analysis and field validation, contributing to the PIDE–RASTA programme.
02 / A LITTLE ABOUT ME
Physics. Engineering. Computation.I’m Malik, a PhD Student at the University of Bologna working at the intersection of fluid dynamics and the built environment.
My work combines numerical modelling, custom C++ development and large-scale parallel computing to investigate turbulent flows, urban aerodynamics and pollutant dispersion.
From mechanical engineering in Lahore to computational science in Islamabad and urban CFD in Bologna, each step has brought a different perspective to the same question: how can better physical understanding inform better design?
PhD thesis submitted · 29 October 2026
Degree expected March 2027
Research experience
University of Bologna
Urban computational fluid dynamics
Bologna, Italy
University of Cyprus
Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory
Nicosia, Cyprus
National University of Sciences and Technology
Urban microclimate and thermal comfort
Islamabad, Pakistan
EDUCATION
University of Bologna · 2023–present · degree expected March 2027
NUST, Islamabad · 2020–2023
University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore · 2016–2020 · with honors
03 / THE TOOLKIT
From the governing equations
to the computing cluster.
OpenFOAM · ANSYS Fluent
RANS · LES · Turbulence modelling
Porous-media vegetation models
C++ · Python
Custom OpenFOAM libraries
Field utilities and post-processing
Linux · MPI · Slurm
Parallel computing
Domain decomposition
BEYOND CFD
ENVI-metArcGISRemote sensingCAD & 3D modelling04 / PUBLICATIONS & TALKS
Google ScholarJOURNAL ARTICLE · URBAN CLIMATE, 64, 102614
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS · ENGINEERING PROCEEDINGS, 12(1), 79
ORAL PRESENTATION / SEPTEMBER 2026
Street-level trees and pollutant dispersion:
a comparison of Bologna and Nicosia.
ORAL PRESENTATION / JUNE 2026
Rooftop vegetation and pollutant dispersion
through Large-Eddy Simulations.
Doctoral research supported by GREEN-POLIS (EU NextGenerationEU / NRRP) and the European TRIGGER project.
05 / WHAT’S NEXT
Bologna, Italy · Working across borders
For conversations about CFD, computational science
and opportunities to put them to work.