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Dr. Tim Persoons

Associate Professor (Mechanical, Manuf & Biomedical Eng)
PARSONS BUILDING
      
Profile Photo

Dr. Tim Persoons

Associate Professor (Mechanical, Manuf & Biomedical Eng)
PARSONS BUILDING

 Tim.Persoons@tcd.ie

 3531896 1936


Dr. ir. Tim Persoons is Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Manufacturing & Biomedical Engineering at TCD since 2019, where he was Assistant Professor since 2013. He has been a visiting Faculty member in the NSF I/UCRC Cooling Technologies Research Center (CTRC) at Purdue University, West Lafayette IN, USA since 2009, and was Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, Belgium during 2009-2010. Tim received his Doctorate in Engineering at KU Leuven in 2006 and his MSc in Mechanical Engineering at KU Leuven in 1999. He was awarded an Irish Research Council (IRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2008, an IRC/Marie Curie INSPIRE International Mobility Fellowship in 2010, and Senior Research Fellowship in TCD in 2012. Tim was co-recipient of the 2013 Hartnett-Irvine Award from the International Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer. Dr. Persoons' research activities include multi-scale convective heat transfer in electronics thermal management using unsteady flows, active flow control for sustainable energy technologies, and developing experimental thermal fluid measurement techniques. Dr. Persoons has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, conference publications, keynote and invited lectures. He has served as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging & Manufacturing Technology (2016-present), Editorial Advisory Board Member for Experimental Thermal & Fluid Science (2020-present), Editorial Board Member for Fluids (2023-present), and Guest Editor for the Journal of Electronic Packaging (2009-2010). He is a member of the EuroTHERM Committee, Scientific Committee of THERMINIC, and is an IEEE ITherm Ambassador. He has served as General Chair, Vice General Chair and Program Chair for THERMINIC (2022-2024), and has co-organized several technical-scientific workshops (e.g., THERMINIC-2022, THERMINIC-2009, PowerMEMS-2010) and the Workshops on Thermal Management in Telecom Systems and Data Centers (2010, 2012, 2015) in collaboration with CTRC. Read more on https://timpersoons.org/
  Aerodynamics   Applied thermodynamics and energy   Computational Fluid Dynamics   Electronics Cooling   Flow Control   Fluids and vibration   HEAT TRANSFER   Imaging Techniques   JET IMPINGEMENT HEAT TRANSFER   LASER-DOPPLER VELOCIMETRY   LASERS AND LASER APPLICATIONS   Optics   PARTICLE IMAGE VELOCIMETRY   SIMULTANEOUS VELOCITY AND HEAT FLUX MEASUREMENTS   Thermal Engineering   TRANSIENT AND UNSTEADY HEAT TRANSFER   Vehicle technology   VELOCITY-MEASUREMENT   Wind Tunnels
Project Title
 Novel passive thermal management solutions for small-scale electronics cooling
From
01/10/2018
To
30/09/2019
Summary
Funding Agency
Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)
Programme
Industry Fellowship Programme
Project Type
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
Person Months
12
Project Title
 Development of a low cost pulsed LED velocity measurement for sustainable data centres
From
01/10/2018
To
30/09/2022
Summary
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council (IRC)
Programme
Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship
Project Type
Postgraduate Scholarship
Person Months
48
Project Title
 Two-phase thermoelectric generator cooler
From
21/08/2017
To
20/08/2018
Summary
Funding Agency
Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) / Analog Devices International
Programme
SFI CONNECT Research Centre Targeted Projects
Project Type
Research Project
Person Months
12
Project Title
 Developing a high dynamic range PIV technique with applications in thermal fluids engineering and environmental flows
From
01/01/2017
To
31/12/2020
Summary
Funding Agency
Naughton Foundation / University of Notre Dame
Programme
Naughton PhD Fellowship
Project Type
Postgraduate Scholarship
Person Months
48
Project Title
 A numerical-experimental analysis of air flow, heat transfer and aeroacoustics to develop new architectures for rack-mounted servers in next generation sustainable data centres
From
01/10/2016
To
30/09/2018
Summary
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council (IRC)
Programme
Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship
Project Type
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
Person Months
24

Page 1 of 3
Details Date
General Chair, International Workshops on Thermal Investigations of ICs and Systems (THERMINIC), Toulouse, France Sep 25-27, 2024
Vice General Chair, International Workshops on Thermal Investigations of ICs and Systems (THERMINIC), Budapest, Hungary Sep 27-29, 2023
Editorial Board Member, Fluids 2023
Program Chair, International Workshops on Thermal Investigations of ICs and Systems (THERMINIC), Dublin, Ireland Sep 28-30, 2022
Awards Committee Member, ASME Electronic and Photonic Packaging Division (EPPD) 2026
Awards Committee Member, International Workshop on Thermal Investigations of ICs and Systems (THERMINIC) 2022
Scientific Council Member, International Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer (ICHMT) 2022
Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology 2016
Editorial Advisory Board Member, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 2020
Guest Editor, Journal of Electronic Packaging-Transactions of the ASME 2009
Scientific Committee Member, International Workshop on Thermal Investigations of ICs and Systems (THERMINIC) 2009
Committee Member, EuroTHERM 2020
Awards Committee Member and Ambassador for Europe, IEEE Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITherm) 2019
Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
Dutch Fluent Fluent Fluent
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
French Fluent Medium Basic
Details Date From Date To
Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Jan 2016
Editorial Advisory Board Member, Experimental Thermal & Fluid Science (Elsevier) Jan 2020
Editorial Board Member, Fluids (MDPI) Jan 2023
Scientific Committee Member, Workshops on Thermal Investigations of ICs and Systems (THERMINIC) Jan 2009
Visiting Faculty, Cooling Technologies Research Center (CTRC), a graduated National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center at Purdue University Jul 2010
Funded Investigator, Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research (AMBER) Jul 2026
Funded Investigator, Science Foundation Ireland Strategic Partnership on Next Generation Energy Systems (NexSys) Sep 2022 Aug 2027
Guest Editor, Journal of Electronic Packaging-Transactions of the ASME Jan 2009 Dec 2010
Ambassador, IEEE Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITherm) Jan 2019
Funded Investigator, Science Foundation Ireland Strategic Partnership on Energy System Integration (ESIPP) Oct 2015
Funded Investigator, Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Future Networks & Communications (CONNECT) Aug 2017
Funded Investigator, Research Ireland Centre for Pharmaceuticals (SSPC) Oct 2019
Funded Investigator, Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine (MaREI) Oct 2020
Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Jan 2018
Member, American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers (ASTFE) Jan 2016
Member, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), T-TAC-TC09.09 Mission critical facilities, data centers, technology spaces and electric equipment Jan 2018
Member, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) May 2014 Dec 2016
Member, European Research Community On Flow, Turbulence and Combustion (ERCOFTAC) Jan 2014 Dec 2016
Wenguang Zhao, Tim Persoons, Near-Field Dynamics of the Tip-Leakage Vortex over a Stationary Blade with Tip Clearance, 32nd AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference (2026), Brussels, Belgium, 2026, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED
Dean M, Surapaneni A, Schindler M, Li A, Mollen F, Cade D, Persoons T, Baum D, Goldbogen J, Hanna S, Bits, bobs and biomechanics: Reconstructing the feeding, anatomy and materials of massive sharks from limited samples, HFSP Frontier Workshop: Bridging Fossil Records and Modern Science - Integrative Approaches to Evolution, London, UK, Aug 3-5, 2026, 2026, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED
Zhao, Wenguang and Wasala, Sahan and Persoons, Tim, Fast prediction of broadband and tonal noise of electronics-cooling axial fans, Journal of Sound and Vibration, 621, 2026, p119485 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Nimvari M.E., Persoons T., Gibbons M.J., Numerical simulation of boiling in wick structures: Comparative analysis of mono - Bi - and hybrid porous media, International Journal of Thermofluids, 32, 2026, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Zhao, Wenguang and Farrell, Gearóid and Nimmagadda, Rajesh and Joshi, Shailesh N. and Dede, Ercan M. and Persoons, Tim, Optimization of a Compact Manifold Heatsink in External Airflow for Power Devices using a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm, IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, 2026, p1--1 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Zhao W., Wang J., Wasala S., Kennedy J., Persoons T., Compact Metamaterial Micro-Slit Panel Absorbers for Low-Frequency Tonal and Broadband Noise Control, Applied Acoustics, 241, 2026, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Younis Osama Abdelsalam, Tim Persoons, Sajad Alimohammadi, A virtual model of data centre cooling, Applied Thermal Engineering, 292, 2026, p130340 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Hannah Cleary, Nikoletta Fotaki, Tim Persoons, Deirdre M D'Arcy, Using PBPK to Simulate Target Biopredictive Dissolution Profiles for Long"Acting Injectables"Where to Begin With Critical Bioavailability Attributes?, CPT: Pharmacometrics & Systems Pharmacology, 15, (3), 2026, pe70212 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Mainendra Kumar Dewangan, Tim Persoons, Controlling flow separation and enhancing heat transfer in topographical microchannels via wall slip, Applied Thermal Engineering, 295, 2026, p130684 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Hailong Liu, Wenguang Zhao, Shipeng Wang, Tim Persoons, Rui Deng, Blade-Tip Noise Characterization Using Physics-Informed Neural Networks and Sparse Velocimetry, AIAA Journal, 2026, Notes: [DOI: 10.2514/1.J067040], Journal Article, PUBLISHED
  

Page 1 of 24
Persoons, T, Invited talk: Flow unsteadiness for enhanced electronics cooling: Synthetic jets, Invited seminar for the Graduate School of the College of Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, Feb 12, 2019, 2019, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Persoons, T, Optical Illusions in the Quest to Reduce the Internet's Energy Bills, TCD Annual Review 2016-2017, 2017, - 36-37, Miscellaneous, PUBLISHED
Persoons, T, Invited talk: High dynamic range PIV for experimental research on transport phenomena, Invited seminar at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, Apr 19, 2016, 2016, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Persoons, T, Invited panel: Current and future ICT thermal management challenges - Performance, efficiency, and IoT, 3rd Workshop on Thermal Management in Telecommunication Systems and Data Centers, Redwood City, CA, USA, 4-5 Nov 2015, 2015, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Persoons, T, Invited talk: Convective thermal management and flow control with synthetic jets, Invited seminar at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA, Jun 4, 2015, 2015, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Deirdre M. D'Arcy, Tim Persoons, 'Simulation of dissolution rate profiles of pharmaceutical systems', School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Dept. of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, 2012, -, Software, EXHIBITED
Persoons, T, Invited talk: Application of high dynamic range PIV to heat transfer studies, Invited seminar at the Graduate School of the College of Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA, 18 Jul 2011, 2011, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Persoons, T, Invited talk: Application of high dynamic range PIV to heat transfer studies with flow unsteadiness, Invited seminar at the Graduate School of the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA, 20 May 2011, 2011, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Persoons, T, Invited talk: Overview and selected results of jet impingement heat transfer research at Trinity College Dublin, Invited seminar at the Graduate School of the Institute of Thermomechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic, 30 Nov 2009, 2009, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED

  


Award Date
Fellow of Trinity College Dublin Apr 2020
Visiting Faculty, NSF I/UCRC Cooling Technologies Research Center, School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA Jan 2012
Visiting Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven Sep 2009
2024 Trinity Innovation Award (Ones-to-Watch), Trinity College Dublin Nov 2024
2020 Harvey Rosten Award for Excellence, IEEE SEMI-THERM Mar 2021
2014 Teaching Innovation Award, Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, Trinity College Dublin June 2014
2014 Christoffel Plantin Prize (nominee for Ireland by Belgian Ambassador) May 2014
2013 Hartnett-Irvine Award, International Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer (ICHMT) June 2014
Senior Research Fellow, Trinity College Dublin Feb 2012
Marie Curie International Mobility Fellowship of the Irish Research Council, hosted by School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University (2010-2013) Aug 2010
Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) in Trinity College Dublin (2008-2010) Aug 2008
2025 Harvey Rosten Award for Excellence, IEEE SEMI-THERM Mar 2026
2025 CONNECT Tom Brazil Award Nov 2025
My research since 2013 has centred on multi-scale convective heat transfer for thermal management of electronics systems. This is underpinned by my expertise in experimental fluid dynamics, developed during my Ph.D. work in KU Leuven and postdoc career in TCD and Purdue University. The focus on electronics cooling is inspired by (i) the rapidly growing energy use of electronics systems and data centres, (ii) the need to better integrate these with our energy system, e.g., through waste heat recuperation, and (iii) the interdisciplinary R&D effort requiring more effective knowledge transfer between industry and academia. Early work (2006-2015) focused into the fundamentals of heat transfer enhancement with flow unsteadiness (pulsating flow, synthetic jets) and its use in confined geometries, like those in electronics systems. Analogies with aerodynamic flow control were explored, furthering the development of active flow control methods. This is founded on experimental expertise with high spatial and temporal resolution measurements of flow and thermal quantities (e.g., particle image velocimetry (PIV), infrared thermography, constant temperature anemometry). Along the way, we developed new and improved measurement techniques (e.g., high dynamic range PIV, pulsed LED PIV). More recently (2016-present), my team developed strong expertise in advanced computational modelling, numerical optimisation, aeroacoustics, reduced order modelling and machine learning-based numerical methods for fluid mechanics and heat/mass transfer. Our academic outputs and collaborations continue to grow and are now supplemented by several patents and awards. My team has long been internationally recognised for novel research on data centre thermal management and convective flow control, is firmly embedded in multiple research centres (CONNECT, CTRC, NexSys, SSPC, MaREI, AMBER) and closely engaged with academic and industry leaders in the field, through my links with CTRC in Purdue and editorial roles in top journals and conferences in the field of electronics cooling.