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Energy

Interdisciplinary Research Centre
 

Energy IRC is governed by a Steering Committee and Director Professor Sir Richard Friend. It meets once a term to review the Interdisciplinary Research Centre's activities, evaluate progress and provide strategic guidance in achieving it's goals.

Steering Committee membership is open to academic staff from the Arts and Humanities, Biological Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, Physical Sciences and Technology.

Steering Committee

Prof. Abir Al-Tabbaa

Engineering, School of Technology

Key interests: Intelligent infrastructure materials, soil mix technology, data mining, mapping, modelling and management

Dr Claire Barlow

Engineering, School of Technology 

Key interests: Eco-efficient manufacturing, re-use and recycling, value from waste

Dr Adam Boies

Engineering, School of Technology 

Key interests: Evolution, dynamics and impacts of gas-phase nanoparticles, air quality, transportation emissions and engineered nanoparticles for energy applications

Prof. David Cebon

Engineering, School of Technology 

Key interests: Dynamic loads of heavy vehicles, heavy vehicle safety and mobility, heavy vehicle fuel consumption and the micromechanics of asphalt deformation and fracture

Prof. Manish Chhowalla

Materials Science and Metallurgy, School of the Physical Sciences

Key interests: Fundamental studies of atomically thin two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), electronic and electrochemical properties, phase transformations in monolayered materials and utilization of phases for catalysis and energy storage

Prof. Ruchi Choudhary

Engineering, School of Technology

Key interests: Building simulation and environmental characteristics of the built environment, urban-scale energy simulation of built environments, with specific emphasis on uncertainty analysis and retrofits of existing buildings

Prof Jonathan Cullen

Engineering, School of Technology

Key interests: Material and energy flows required to support energy, transport, buildings and infrastructure systems

Prof. Judith Driscoll

Materials Science and Metallurgy, School of the Physical Sciences

Key interests: Energy efficient oxide materials for ICT and energy devices, nanoscale design and tuning of thin film materials

Prof. Paul Dupree

Biochemistry, School of Biological Sciences

Key interests: Biosynthesis and function of polysaccharide components of the plant cell wall

Prof. Siân E Dutton

Chemistry,  School of the Physical Sciences

Key interests: Properties of complex oxides for energy applications including batteries and solid state magnetic cooling

Prof. Adrian Fisher

Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, School of Technology

Key interests: Microfabrication, fluid dynamics, numerical simulations, spectroscopic analysis and electrochemical methodology, design, manufacture and application to microscale reactor systems for the development of the next generation of (bio)chemical sensors

Prof. Shaun Fitzgerald

Engineering, School of Technology 

Key interests: Climate repair, deep and rapid emissions reductions, greenhouse gas removal, targeted interventions to restore specific damaged climate systems, low energy natural ventilation, sustainable building technologies

Dr Alexander Forse 

Chemistry, School of the Physical Sciences

Key interests: Functional behaviour of new materials for CO2 capture and electrochemical energy storage, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy techniques that are complemented by synthetic chemistry, electrochemistry and computational chemistry

Prof. Sir Richard Friend

Physics, School of the Physical Sciences (Director)

Key interests: Electronic properties of novel semiconductors, carbon-based organic semiconductors and metal halide perovskites, photovoltaic diodes, FETs, and LEDs, fundamental electronic structure and applications in display technologies and solar cells

Prof. Sohini Kar-Narayan

Materials Science and Metallurgy, School of the Physical Sciences

Key interests: Polymer-based nanomaterials for applications in energy harvesting and sensing, piezoelectric, ferroelectric, magnetoelectric and thermoelectric nanostructures for harvesting and harnessing ambient waste energies for sensing technologies

Prof. Markus Kraft

Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, School of Technology

Key interests: Computational modelling and optimisation targeted towards developing carbon abatement and emissions reduction technologies for the automotive, power and chemical industries

Prof Teng Long

EngineeringSchool of Technology

Key interests: Power electronics, power conversion systems, electric vehicles (cars, trains, ships, aircraft), electrical energy storage, renewable energy, smart grid

Dr Ewa Marek

Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, School of Technology

Key interests: Energy, energy materials, sustainable production of high-value chemicals and energy vectors, carbon capture, fluidised bed, discrete element modelling, CFD-DEM

Prof. David Reiner

Judge Business School, School of Technology

Key interests: National climate change policies; social and political acceptability of low-carbon technologies; public views of fracking, carbon capture and storage technologies, energy demand, policy design; public perceptions of energy technologies, regulatory policy

Prof Sam Stranks

Physics, School of the Physical Sciences

Key interests: Optical and electronic properties of emerging semiconductors including halide perovskites, carbon allotropes and organic semiconductors for low-cost electronics applications such as photovoltaics and lighting

Prof. Laura Torrente-Murciano

Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, School of Technology

Key interests: Novel catalytic routes for sustainable technologies, reaction engineering, integration of reaction and separation steps in chemical processes, nanostructured materials as catalytic supports, ammonia as a vector of sustainable hydrogen

Prof. Michaël De Volder

Engineering, School of Technology

Key interests: Scalable processes to arrange nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes and graphene into well-defined superstructures, applications in sensors, electronics, catalysis, energy storage, water purification, and smart materials

Dr Li Wan

Land Economy, School of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Key interests:  Urban land-use and transport, location and travel choices, inter-disciplinary modelling of urban and infrastructure systems, model-based development policy studies, integration of big data and urban system modelling

Prof. Paul Warde

History, School of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Key interests: Environmental, economic and social history. Natural resource use and its role in shaping working lives, communities, societies and economic development

 

Cambridge University Energy Network / Cambridge University Energy Technologies Society Representative