The Team
Sam Gunner
Senior Research Associate
University of Bristol
sam.gunner@bristol.ac.uk
Sam is an engineer and researcher with an unusually broad range of skills, spanning embedded hardware design, firmware development, data engineering, and stakeholder engagement. Before joining the University of Bristol, he spent four years at Transport for London designing distributed traffic signal control systems, and two further years in the wind energy sector building monitoring and control systems for operational wind farms. This industry background gives him a practical, delivery-focused approach to research that is rare in academia.
Sam's PhD, awarded by the University of Bristol, developed a systematic methodology for designing and deploying sociotechnical systems to answer specific urban management questions - a framework that underpins the Local Air approach. He has since applied and extended this methodology across a wide range of projects, from civil infrastructure digital twins to urban energy systems and micromobility research.
On Local Air, Sam designed the sensor hardware and firmware, managed the London deployment, and leads the project's partnerships with WECA, Dott, and Bristol City Council.
James Thomas
Senior Data Scientist
Jean Golding Institute, University of Bristol
James is a Senior Data Scientist and Research Engineering team lead at the Jean Golding Institute, the University of Bristol's hub for Data and AI. He has over 15 years experience of computational and experimental research projects, with expertise in processing complex and messy data sets, using AI and modelling to inform decision-making and policy interventions, and communicating with non-technical audiences.
Before joining the University of Bristol, James spent 10 years working on low-carbon energy and net zero projects for Government and organisations in the energy sector. His work included of remote data collection in large-scale field trials to measure the real-world performance of low-carbon heating technologies.
His interests include urban analytics: data collected by electric micromobility, air quality data, monitoring infrastructure and understanding the vulnerability of people and infrastructure to the effects of climate change.
Contact us and get involved
Local Air is actively seeking partners, collaborators, and supporters for the next phase of the project. Whether you are a local authority interested in the data, a researcher working on urban air quality or atmospheric modelling, or an organisation that wants to support the work, we'd love to hear from you.