Postdoc aircraft noise Roberto Merino-Martinez wins Clean Sky Academy Award

News - 20 June 2019

Postdoc Roberto Merino-Martinez at the Aircraft Noise and Climate Effects (ANCE) research group has won the Clean Sky Academy Award for the best PhD thesis in Applied Sciences and Engineering for Aeronautics.  

Merino-Martinez: “Environmental noise is one of Europe’s biggest health threats. This award recognises the importance of research to reduce aircraft noise emissions and puts the subject firmly on the radar of policy makers.” Merino-Martinez received the award, consisting of a diploma, a trophy and a ticket to the Paris Air Show Le Bourget, during the AeroDays Conference in Bucharest last month.  

Roberto Merino-Martinez is a postdoc at the Aircraft Noise and Climate Effects research group at the faculty of Aerospace Engineering. Out of several hundred fellow contestants he was chosen as the winner of the Clean Sky Academy Award for the best PhD thesis in Applied Sciences and Engineering for Aeronautics. A jury consisting of experts in aerospace engineering from the Clean Sky organisation determined that his PhD thesis with the title ‘Microphone arrays for imaging of aerospace noise sources’ was the best. Merino-Martinez’s work mostly consisted of identifying the main noise sources on board of aircraft using microphone arrays (acoustic imaging) and assessing the performance of noise reduction measures.

Merino-Martinez: “It was a huge honour to receive this award and I consider it a great recognition of my research work during my PhD. It was also a wonderful experience to attend the AeroDays conference and be surrounded by the main players of the aerospace industry in Europe.” Merino-Martinez hopes that by winning the award, the importance and urgency of research on aircraft noise will become more visible in the university and among policy makers. “Aircraft noise is one of the main challenges in the aerospace industry. The continuous growth in air traffic only makes this situation worse. Even the World Health Organization (WHO) recently stated that environmental noise is currently Europe's second-biggest health threat after air pollution. The research we do in ANCE is the first step towards sustainable and quiet aviation.”

Clean Sky Academy Award

The Clean Sky Academy Award is an initiative of the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking programme of the European Commission. It distinguishes young scientists who have recently completed their PhD thesis in scientific fields associated with aeronautics. Highlights It highlights outstanding achievements of scientists and researchers at the start of their careers.