Personal statement

Dr Kamranzad is a Chancellor’s Fellow and Lecturer (Global Talent Programme) in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. With over 15 years of expertise in Ocean and Coastal Engineering, she specialises in the impacts of climate change on ocean dynamics, the sustainability of offshore renewable energies, and coastal resilience. She utilises advanced numerical modelling, AI, and hybrid computational approaches to address marine hazards and extreme events. Dr Kamranzad is also a Fellow of UArctic x Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

For her efforts in the fields of Energy, Oceanography, and Enabling & Strategic Technologies, she has been recognised among the Top 2% of Scientists Globally (2020–2022, 2024) by Stanford University and Elsevier. Her leadership in sustainability was further recognised as the 2023 Emerging Sustainability Leader by the MDPI Sustainability Foundation and the University of Basel. 

Appointed by the Scottish Government, Dr Kamranzad serves on the Advisory Panel for ClimateXChange (Scotland’s Centre of Expertise on Climate Change). As a delegate of the prestigious 2026 Royal Society Pairing Scheme, she is a dedicated proponent of bridging the gap between science and policy. She is the co-founder of the International Integrated Wave Energy Research Group  (IIWER) and maintains strategic partnerships with industry leaders including Intertek Metoc, SSE Renewables, Wood PLC, Lloyd’s Register Foundation, and Wave Energy Scotland.

She leads the Coastal Engineering & Ocean Climate research group and the Strathclyde Centre for Doctoral Training (SCDT) in "AI-Based Ocean Forecasts for Marine Operation" (mArIneCAST CDT). She also acts as a supervisor for EPSRC Industrial CDT in Offshore Renewable Energy (IDCORE) and Net Zero Technologies at the National Subsea Centre (NZTC) CDT. 

As a Principal Investigator, she has secured substantial international grants (UK, Japan, China) and authored over 50 peer-reviewed articles in top-tier journals (SCOPUS). Her editorial contributions include serving as Deputy Editor for Ocean Engineering and on the Advisory Editorial Board for Coastal Engineering. She has delivered invited talks at various public and reputable academic platforms, globally (see public and academic talks). 

As a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), Dr Kamranzad has demonstrated significant curriculum leadership at the University of Strathclyde, most notably by developing and serving as Module Lead for Coastal Engineering (CL814), a specialist subject she reintroduced to the department after a hiatus of more than a decade. Her commitment to international engineering education includes teaching within the International Joint Education Programme (IJEP) at Yunnan University, China, for the course Water and Environmental Systems (2023–2024). She currently coordinates the Individual Projects (CL448) and MEng Dissertation (CL516) modules, while providing academic supervision for Independent Study in Collaboration with Industry (CL973). Furthermore, she acts as a supervisor for MSc dissertation (CL980, CL953, CL944, CL930, and EV900

Dr Kamranzad’s career is marked by highly competitive international appointments. Prior to joining the University of Strathclyde, she held a prestigious Assistant Professorship at the Hakubi Center for Advanced Research, Kyoto University (2018–2022), a position awarded through a rigorous global selection process with an acceptance rate of less than 4%. Her foundational research in Japan began at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, through a highly selective Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellowship (2016–2018), an internationally competitive fellowship with a sub-10% acceptance rate. In 2022, she further expanded her UK network as a Visiting Academic within the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London.

Ongoing Research Activities and Leadership

Arctic Climate and Extremes

• Principal Investigator, Impact of Marine Heatwaves on Sea Ice for Arctic Navigational Safety
• Principal Investigator, Arctic Wave Climate Response to Global Warming
• Contributor to the “UK Arctic Ocean and Coastal Research for IPY5; Knowledge Gaps, Ambitions and Capabilities” report (Theme 4: Hazards and Resilience), led by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC)
• Organising session “Resilience in a Changing Ocean: Bridging Nature-Based Approaches, Conservation Science, and Maritime Governance”, AGU-Ocean Sciences Meeting, 2025
• Member, Scottish Arctic Network (ScAN)
• Member, “Ice” Special Interest Group, Challenger Society for Marine Science

Marine (Hybrid) Renewable Energy

• Supervisor, PhD project Hybrid Renewable Energy in a Changing Climate
• Co-founder, International Integrated Wave Energy Research (IIWER) Group 
• Co-supervisor, IDCORE (EPSRC Industrial CDT in Offshore Renewable Energy)
• Member, “Ocean Wind Waves” Special Interest Group, Challenger Society for Marine Science

AI in Ocean Modelling and Maritime Safety 

• Supervisor, Strathclyde Centre for Doctoral Training (SCDT) in AI-Based Ocean Forecasts for Marine Operations
• Member, “Ocean Modelling” Special Interest Group, Challenger Society for Marine Science
• Co-supervissor, Net Zero Technologies at the National Subsea Centre (NZTC) CDT

Coastal Resilience

• Supervisor, PhD project Monitoring Coastal Systems: High-Resolution Techniques for Environmental Change Detection
• Member, European Marine Board (EMB) Working Group The Dynamics of Coastal Waters under Natural and Anthropogenic Drivers: Applying Digital Twin and Similar Technologies to Obtain New Insights
• Module Leader and Lecturer, CL814 – Coastal Engineering (10 credits), University of Strathclyde

Climate Change

• Member, Advisory Panel, ClimateXChange (Scotland’s Centre of Expertise on Climate Change)
• Collaborator, Future Coastal Ocean Climates (FLAME) community, NOC
• Member, Coordinated Ocean Wave Climate Project (COWCLIP) international research group

On the Media & Public Outreach:

• 2026, Dr Bahareh Kamranzad: why AI forecasting will matter more as Arctic shipping enters a less predictable era, SeaNews UK
• 2026, Strathclyde academic joins Royal Society Pairing Scheme 2026, University of Strathclyde News
• 2026, Navigating the "New Normal": Marine Heatwaves and the Future of Arctic Shipping, UArctic Shared Voices Magazine
  
• 2026, UArctic x LRF Fellows: Research Visit to Hokkaido University on Arctic Marine Heatwaves and Sea Ice, University of the Arctic News
• 2025, Marine heatwaves and sea ice: implications for Arctic navigational safety, Lloyd's Register Foundation
• 2025, University leads groundbreaking research on Arctic Sea temperature rise , University of Strathclyde News
• Researcher part of global study on future climate threats to coastal oceans, University of Strathclyde News
  
• 2025, Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS) Webinar, "Coastal Resilience in a Changing Climate Challenges and Opportunities" 
• 2024, One Ocean Hub, From the coast to the ocean depths: co-developing innovative solutions for sustainable development 
• 2024, Building Collaborative Relationships Between Researchers in Scotland and Japan
• 2023, Interview with 2023 Emerging Sustainability Leader Award Finalists 
• 2023, MDPI Sustainability Talks, University of Basel
• 2.23, From “Maladaptation” to “Antifragility”: Coastal areas under the combined impact of changing climate and development of ocean renewables, Nature Portfolio Earth and Environment Community
  
• 2022, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, Reaching Net-Zero Emissions with Ocean Renewable Energies  
• 2022, Japan-China High-level Expert Symposium on Energy Transition, 
• 2020, DAAD-Kyoto University partnership programme towards SDGs  
• 2019, DWIH Tokyo, AI for SDGs – How Can AI Help Solve Environmental Challenges? (Japanese-German-French Conference)  
• 2019, Kyoto University IPCC weeks 2019 Report
• 2019, Roundtable discussion with the president of Kyoto University (in Japanese)