MSc Civil & Environmental Engineering · Indoor Air Quality

Abenezer Sisay
Dibisa

An environmental & civil engineer reading the air inside our buildings — sizing the combustion particles we breathe and the dose they deliver to the lung — at the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio.

29.35/30
MSc average
2nd
Dept. research prize
2
Engineering fields
3
Languages
About

Most of the air we breathe, we breathe indoors — so that is where I measure it.

I am an environmental and civil engineer finishing an MSc in Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, where I work with Prof. Giorgio Buonanno on the aerosols released by everyday combustion — cooking, heating, candles. The heavy metals and PAHs carried by these particles concentrate in the finest size fractions: exactly the particles that travel deepest into the lung, and that mass metrics like PM2.5 describe poorly.

My thesis pairs size-resolved measurement of combustion aerosol with ICRP respiratory-tract modelling, so exposure is expressed as delivered dose rather than ambient concentration. I complement the measurements with CFD, so I can see how particles actually move through a room. For doctoral work I want to move from characterising sources to controlling them — how ventilation, filtration and source management reshape the size distribution that reaches the lung in real, occupied buildings.

My first degree, in Hydraulics & Water Resources Engineering, still runs underneath everything I do: the same fluid mechanics governs a river channel and a rising thermal plume. Alongside the aerosol work I build BIM models and design with tools like Revit and DIALux.

Research

Two questions, one thread of fluid mechanics.

Focus 01

Indoor aerosols & delivered dose

Size-resolved measurement of combustion particles (ELPI+, Partector 2) combined with ICRP respiratory-tract modelling — turning number and mass distributions into regional deposited dose.

Focus 02

Airflow & particle transport (CFD)

Modelling how buoyant plumes and ventilation carry ultrafine particles through a room in ANSYS Fluent, validated against real instrument data — the physics behind why ventilation matters.

Focus 03

Water resources & the built environment

Open-channel hydraulics, IoT-driven irrigation and BIM — the civil-engineering foundation that connects my water-resources background to indoor-environment design.

Projects

Selected work across both fields.

Civil & Environmental — Air Quality & BIM
CFD pathlines of the buoyant plume from cooking, coloured by velocity
Computational fluid dynamics

How cooking pollution fills a kitchen

A CFD study in ANSYS Fluent of ultrafine-particle dispersion from an electric stove — a 78 m³ room, ~1M mesh cells, natural convection — validated against my own Partector 2 measurements. The finding: in a closed kitchen the particles don't clear; they become well-mixed and stay elevated.

Measured LDSA vs time during cooking on an electric stove
Indoor air quality · measurement

Cooking UFP study with the Partector 2

Measurement and analysis of ultrafine-particle emissions during indoor cooking, comparing gas vs electric stoves and open vs closed kitchens, tracking lung-deposited surface area (LDSA) through each scenario.

Revit 3D model of the UNICAS Rettorato building
BIM · Revit

UNICAS Rettorato — BIM model

A full building-information model of the University of Cassino Rettorato: 3D envelope, structure and coordinated section views produced in Autodesk Revit as part of my BIM coordination work.

DIALux false-colour illuminance simulation of a building
Lighting · environmental comfort

Illuminance study in DIALux

A lighting and environmental-comfort simulation modelling illuminance distribution across a building's spaces — linking daylight and artificial lighting to occupant comfort.

Hydraulics & Water Resources
Filling ratio vs flow-rate curve for open-channel pipe flow
Hydraulics · Python

Open-channel flow analysis

A Python/Jupyter tool computing flow area, wetted perimeter, hydraulic radius and discharge for partially filled circular channels via Manning's equation — mapping filling ratio against flow rate.

Certificate of appreciation for the 2nd-place research project
BSc thesis 2nd place · Dept. prize

Dry Surface Water Feeder — IoT irrigation

Design of a sensor-driven, IoT-based automated irrigation and water-supply system for large and small-scale irrigation. Ranked 2nd of all final-year research projects in the department's 2021/22 competition at Jimma University.

On-site during the Erasmus+ EUt+ CONSTRUCT programme
Erasmus+ · leadership

EUt+ CONSTRUCT — student build, Cyprus

As project manager on the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme in Limassol, I led a multicultural team through the design and construction of a student relaxation dome, coordinating tasks, timelines and on-site work.

Education

Where the two fields come together.

2024 — 2026

MSc, Civil & Environmental Engineering

University of Cassino and Southern Lazio · Italy

Weighted average 29.35/30 (≈ high distinction). Thesis: size-resolved chemical characterisation of heavy metals and PAHs in combustion particles — supervised by Prof. Giorgio Buonanno.

2018 — 2022

BSc, Hydraulics & Water Resources Engineering

Jimma University, Institute of Technology · Ethiopia

CGPA 3.36/4.00 (Very Great Distinction). Award-winning thesis on IoT-based automated irrigation (2nd in department, 2021/22).

2019 — 2023

BA, Management (distance learning)

Jimma University, College of Business & Economics · Ethiopia
Experience

Research, projects and the field.

2025 — Present

Graduate Researcher — Aerosol Measurement

University of Cassino · Supervisor: Prof. Giorgio Buonanno

Design and run combustion-aerosol sampling with an ELPI+ cascade impactor; process raw electrometer data into size-resolved number and mass distributions; apply the ICRP respiratory-tract model to estimate regional deposited dose, and interpret results in terms of particle-bound heavy metals and PAHs.

Jun — Jul 2025

Project Manager — Erasmus+ BIP

EUt+ CONSTRUCT: Learn, Lead, Legacy · Limassol, Cyprus

Led a multicultural student team through the design and construction of a student relaxation dome; coordinated tasks, timelines and on-site work, and presented outcomes to supervisors and stakeholders.

Apr — Jul 2021

Engineering Intern — Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands

Ethiopia

Supported the design of the irrigation scheme fed by the Ajima Chacha embankment dam and took part in site works on the dam and its distribution infrastructure.

Skills & Training

The toolkit.

Aerosol & measurement

  • ELPI+ cascade impactor
  • Partector 2 (LDSA)
  • Condensation particle counter
  • Size-distribution & mass analysis
  • ICRP respiratory-tract modelling

Modelling & simulation

  • ANSYS Fluent (CFD)
  • HEC-RAS · HEC-HMS
  • EPANET
  • DIALux

Programming & data

  • Python
  • MATLAB
  • Pandas / NumPy / Matplotlib
  • Jupyter

Design & geospatial

  • Revit (BIM)
  • AutoCAD · Civil 3D
  • QGIS · ArcGIS
Certificates & training

Introduction to IoT & Embedded Systems

University of California, Irvine
2026

Programming for Everybody (Python)

University of Michigan
2026

BIM Coordination

L&T EduTech
2025

Dereja Academy Accelerator Program

Dereja · Mastercard Foundation
2022
Awards

Recognition.

2022

2nd place — Departmental Research Competition

Jimma University · Dept. of Hydraulic & Water Resources Eng.

Certificate of Appreciation for the final-year research project “Dry Surface Water Feeder and Water Supply for Large and Small Scale Irrigation Scheme”, which stood second among all students' research projects in the 2021/22 academic year.

Jimma University Certificate of Appreciation awarded to Abenezer Sisay Dibisa
Contact

Let's talk about indoor air.

I'm open to PhD opportunities, research collaborations and civil / environmental engineering projects in indoor air quality, aerosols, CFD, BIM and water resources. The best way to reach me is by email.

Email me