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Fellows
Durham Energy Institute (DEI) has an ongoing open call to appoint non-stipendiary Fellows from current staff and students. As one of the University’s cross-cutting research institutes, the DEI takes an interdisciplinary approach to the broad questions surrounding the supply and demand of energy in a developing World. Accordingly, applicants from all disciplines across the Science, Social Science and Arts & Humanities Faculties are welcomed.
DEI Fellows benefit from the DEI’s exceptional academic, industrial and political links at local, national and international level. It is intended that Fellows will contribute to developing and promoting these links through their own research activities. Each Fellow is given a specific remit associated with their fellowship in relation to their research interests. All PhD Fellow's have a remit to support the DEI STEM outreach agenda.
Adebola teaches climate change & policy at Durham Law School. He is also the environment champion at the law school leading the efforts to promote sustainability within the University and the law school. Adebola has previously worked in commercial law firms advising on commercial law and renewable energy transactions.
Dr Gagangeet Singh Aujla
Gagangeet Singh Aujla is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Durham University. His research revolves around ‘’energy sustainability in computing and communications’’ (involving energy trading, demand response, carbon intelligence, etc). Likewise, he was awarded the 2018 IEEE TCSC Outstanding PhD Dissertation Award and 2021 IEEE Systems Journal Best Paper Award.
Smith Azubuike is Assistant Professor in Energy Law at Durham Law School and a qualified Lawyer in Nigeria. He previously taught at Queen's University Belfast. Smith's teaching and research focus on energy law and sustainability, risk allocation in the energy sector and legal instruments towards achieving a just and fair energy transition.
Dr Huashan Bao
Huashan received PhD from Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. She then worked as Research Associate and then Senior Research Associate in Sir Joseph Swan Centre for Energy Research at Newcastle University before she joined Durham University as Assistant Professor in 2019.
Ekanem Bassey is a PhD candidate in Law and Energy at the Durham Law School. She holds an LLM in International Trade and Commercial Law from the Durham University and an LLB (Honours) degree from the University of Calabar as well as being a qualified Barrister and Solicitor in Nigeria.
Professor Gavin Bridge
Gavin is a social scientist (PhD in Geography) focussed on the political economy of energy and natural resources. He is interested in extractive industries - such as oil and gas, and critical materials associated with low-carbon technologies - and how geo-economic competition and climate change are reconfiguring global supply chains. He spent over 10 years living and working in the United States before returning to the UK.
Dr Rich Brown
Rich is a Geologist interested in pure and applied aspects of volcano science. Director of the Durham-managed Volcanic Margins Research Consortium from 2011-17, an academia-industry knowledge exchange partnership between UK universities and energy companies that funded PhD research and provided class- and field-based training to industry scientists.
Dr Ben Campbell
Ben is an environmental/energy anthropologist concerned with research and teaching on the social dimensions of energy systems, developing an understanding of the potential for energy innovation by engaging community based local knowledge and skilled practice. Ben is co-chair of the Low Carbon Energy for Development Network working with DFID-ESRC-EPSRC projects.
Dr Rui Carvalho
My research focuses on the integration of methods of convex optimisation and statistical machine learning. I was a Senior Research Associate at the Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge. Prior to that, I was a Research Fellow, and a Researcher Co-Investigator at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London. I have been a Researcher Co-Investigator on EPSRC grants totalling over £1.1M, and I am a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College.
Dr Jack Copley
Jack Copley is Assistant Professor in International Political Economy and Head of the International Political Economy Group in SGIA, Durham University. His research explores the governance of capitalism, with a focus on the implications of global economic stagnation for states’ efforts to decarbonise their energy systems and industrial structures.
Dr Nic de Paola
Nicola's main research interests are in fault and earthquake mechanics. In 2011, he has established the Rock Mechanics Laboratory, in the Earth Sciences Department (Durham University). Recent work carried out in his laboratory contributed to our understanding of the processes that favour fault lubrication and earthquake propagation. His core research interests have recently broadened to include human-induced seismicity associated with geothermal energy, gas extraction and carbon storage/sequestration.
Dr Pauline Destrée
Pauline Destrée is an anthropologist interested in understanding the politics of energy and the inequalities of environmental crises from a socio-cultural perspective. She has worked on oil extraction, electricity and solar energy in urban Ghana. Her current project looks at post-oil futures and livelihoods in Takoradi, Ghana.
Phil is a professor of inorganic chemistry and head of the Chemistry Department’s Chemistry for Sustainability research grouping and Chair of the Department’s Industrial Engagement Committee. His group’s research spans development of low-impact, sustainable synthesis of a range of industrially important chemicals, bridging fuels through to chemical raw materials/feedstocks.
Dr Can Eken is Assistant Professor in Commercial Law and is an expert in the field of international arbitration. He is a founding member of the Durham International Dispute Resolution Institute (DIDRI), an international research institute providing a platform for discussion between leading scholars and practitioners and aspires to become the premier research Centre in international dispute resolution.
Ms Ankita Garg
Ankita Garg joined as a post-graduate research scholar in the Department of Computer Science, Durham University in 2021. Her research area includes Optimisation and Uncertainty modelling in Smart Energy Systems using Machine Learning for achieving net-zero carbon emissions.
Professor Jon Gluyas
Jon is a geoscientist with 39 years in industry and academia. He specialises in geothermal energy, carbon capture use and storage (CCUS), helium exploration, human-induced seismicity and transitioning technology into commercial enterprises.
Dr Adrian Green
My research includes a focus on energy use in domestic buildings between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. Research on early industrialisation in north-east England relates to energy use in the transition from an ‘organic’ economy dependent on plant fibre and animal muscle to an economy based on coal.
Professor Chris Groves
Professor Groves worked in departments of Electronics (Sheffield), Physics (Cambridge) and Chemistry (Seattle), before arriving at Durham Engineering. His research interests centre on the use of novel plastics in cheap solar cells.
Professor Simon Hogg
Simon holds the Ørsted Chair in Renewable Energy at Durham University. He has been Head of the Engineering Department since 2017 and was DEI’s Executive Director 2014-2017. Simon’s career includes extended periods in industry and academia. He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Dr Rozemarijn Roland Holst
Rozemarijn is Assistant Professor in International Environmental Law and co-director of the Durham Centre for Sustainable Development Law and Policy. She researches and advises on international law of the sea and climate change. Other energy-related research interests include the energy transition in the North Sea, deep seabed mining, and geo-engineering.
Dr Alton Horsfall
Dr Alton Horsfall obtained his PhD from the University of Durham in 1997 and spent nearly 20 years at the University of Newcastle, before returning to Durham in 2018. His work is in the development of novel semiconductor devices for deployment in a range of applications from aerospace to renewable energy distribution, as well as the use of quantum physics to develop new paradigms in electronic device measurement.
Dr Ensieh Hosseini
Ensieh Hosseini joined the Department of Engineering at Durham University in November 2021 as an Assistant Professor in Flexible Electronics. Her current research interests include developing flexible sensors and piezoelectric/triboelectric energy harvesters based on novel functional materials and nanofibers for applications in wearable healthcare and environmental monitoring.
Dr Anish Jindal
Anish Jindal is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Durham University. His PhD was focused on demand side management in smart grids using data analytics and present research focuses on leveraging data science for carbon-intelligent, energy-efficient programmable networks as well as smart energy management systems for smart cities.
Dr Karen Johnston
Dr Karen Johnston was appointed Assistant Professor in Inorganic Chemistry at Durham University in 2015, where she has been concentrating on the design and development of new solid electrolyte materials for all-solid-state batteries. She is focused on probing local structural changes and assessing their influence on the observed physical properties.
Dr Stuart Jones
Stuart is a clastic sedimentologist that specialises in continental sedimentology, diagenesis and geopressure. He uses the joint application of subsurface and outcrop sedimentological data for improved model development and reducing subsurface risk and uncertainty for geoenergy.
Professor Behzad Kazemtabrizi
My principal research interests are in advanced energy system modelling, for improving operability and reliability of future flexible energy systems. My past and present research encompasses a wide area of topics including but not limited to research in energy systems integration, reliability and optimisation of power systems, and large-scale wind energy integration.
Dr Sarah Knuth
Sarah Knuth is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Durham University. Her research focuses on critical geographies of climate change and clean energy transition, finance/financialisation and the green economy, including work on urban infrastructural and fiscal transformations, transitions justice and dis/reassembly in a green industrial revolution.
Dr Jessica Lehmann
I am a human-environment geographer primarily interested in international environmental politics. My current research on energy comprises two main themes: 1) The intersections of climate change adaptation/resilience and fossil fuel extraction; 2) New geographies of offshore energy and their relationships to marine politics.
Dr Janie Ling-Chin
Janie is Researcher Co-Investigator of EPSRC-funded networks, 'A Network for Hydrogen-fuelled Transportation' and 'A Network for Heating and Cooling Research to Enable a Net-Zero Carbon Future'. Her research focuses on life cycle assessment, thermal management, CCUS, and health index of electrical energy storage.
Dr Zhiwei Ma
Zhiwei received PhD from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He then worked as RA in Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Sheffield University and Sir Joseph Swan Centre for Energy Research, Newcastle University. He was promoted to Senior RA in 2018 before joining Durham University as Assistant Professor in 2019.
Dr Abdullah Malik
Dr Malik is a Chemical and Process Engineer. While being a Member of the Energy Institute he has worked on several energy-related commercial projects in the UK and other parts of the world. Dr Malik has a keen interest in research related to gasification/pyrolysis of biomass/solid recovered fuels to produce hydrogen and clean technologies.
Dr Gabriela Manley
Gabriela Manley is an anthropologist focusing on renewable energy policies in Scotland. Her Leverhulme Trust funded project ‘Climate Futures: imagination and its influence on climate change polices in Scotland’ investigates the relationship between utopian/dystopian imaginations of the future and the effective creation of climate change policy.
Dr Laura Marsiliani
Laura holds a PhD in Economics from London Business School and an MSc in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics from University College London. Her main research interests are in energy and environmental economics and policies. She teaches Public Economics and Environmental Economics and Policy at Durham University Business School.
Dr Budhika Mendis
Dr Mendis is an Associate Professor in the Dept of Physics. His research interests are in uncovering the fundamental phenomena limiting the efficiency of thin-film photovoltaics (PV) and devising strategies to overcome them. Electron microscopy is a key technique in this work.
Dr Petra Minnerop
Dr Petra Minnerop is Associate Professor of international law and is an internationally-recognised expert in the field of environmental and climate change law. She is the founding Director of IRAB, an international research advisory board that aims at providing long-term research-led capacity building with partners in the Global South.
Dr Riccardo Mogre
Dr Riccardo Mogre is an Associate Professor in Operations Management. His research focuses on how to make management decisions in presence of risks. Within this scope, he has developed models to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of energy supply chains. He also has research interests in sustainable operations and life-cycle analysis
Professor Marcus Power
Marcus Power is a Professor of Human Geography. His research focuses on theories and practices of global development and his work has explored the energy-development nexus and in particular the sustainability, accessibility and affordability of low carbon energy services and technologies in sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr Felix Ringel
Felix Ringel is Assistant Professor in Social Anthropology at Durham University. He works on energy transitions, urban sustainability and post-carbon futures in postindustrial Europe. His monograph Back to the Postindustrial Future: An Ethnography of Germany’s Fastest-Shrinking City (2018) investigates the effects of severe population shrinkage in a former mining city.
Wenjuan Ruan holds a PhD in Finance from the University of Wollongong (Australia). She has established a research track record through publications in areas of corporate finance, corporate governance, sustainable finance, and FinTech. She has secured several research grants from the UK, Australia, and China.
Clive is Executive Dean for Science at Durham. Clive’s academic interests are focused on improving the performance of engineering systems, with a particular focus on railways and other critical infrastructure systems. His research covers a range of interdisciplinary areas including energy and sustainability, sensing and data analysis, complex system simulation, control systems, risk and safety assessment, AI and machine learning and systems engineering.
Dr. Dibyendu Roy is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Durham University, specializing in clean energy technologies, including biomass energy, hydrogen and fuel cells, and multi-vector energy systems. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, and has published his research in several international journals
Dr Nur Sarma
Dr Sarma received the B.Sc. and MSc degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Sakarya University, Turkey. She subsequently received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from The University of Manchester, UK, in 2017. She has been working in Durham University, Department of Engineering since March 2022.
Dr Nima Gerami Seresht
Dr Nima Gerami Seresht received a PhD in Construction Engineering and Management from the University of Alberta in Canada. He is recognised for his multi-disciplinary research that synergises the power of artificial intelligence and system simulation to improve the sustainability and resilience of built assets, so called Thriving Digital Built-Environment.
Dr Mahmoud Shahbazi
Dr Mahmoud Shahbazi is an Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering in the Department of Engineering. His current research is focused on the fault-tolerant operation of power electronic converters, renewable energy integration, and power system modelling and optimisation.
Dr Andrew Smallbone
Andrew is the Director of the EPSRC Network+ on the Decarbonisation of Heating and Cooling, Co-Director of the EPSRC Network+ on Hydrogen for Transportation (Network-H2), a Fellow of the Durham Energy Institute (DEI) and an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering. He leads multi-disciplinary research teams on the decarbonisation of energy, heat, transport and industry. His expertise is in techno-economic evaluation and advanced numerical modelling as well as the development of novel engineering prototypes and hardware demonstrations.
Professor Hongjian Sun
Professor Hongjian Sun is a Reader in Smart Grid at Durham University, is an Editor-in-Chief for IET Smart Grid journal, and an Editor/Guest Editor for several journals. He has authored over 120 papers in refereed journals and conferences, and secured grants from various funding bodies (including H2020, EPSRC, Innovate UK, BEIS etc).
Dr Julie Van de Vyver obtained her PhD in Psychology from the University of Kent in 2016. She held a Lectureship at the University of Lincoln from 2016-2018. She joined Durham University as an Assistant Professor of Psychology in 2018.
Professor Jeroen van Hunen
Jeroen van Hunen is a professor in Computational Geoscience in the department of Earth Sciences. He works on numerical modelling of a range of topics, including large-scale dynamics, climate, and energy-related models on carbon-capture and storage and mine geothermal energy.
Shivaprasad KV has been working in the Department of Engineering at Durham University, UK, since November 2019. Previously, he worked as a Research Associate at Sir Joseph Swan Centre for Energy Research, Newcastle University. He worked as an assistant professor for 2 years and 4 months at Bearys Institute of Technology, Mangalore, India, for two years. He has 6 years of teaching experience and 4 years of research experience. Shivaprasad’s research interests focus on engine combustion, decarbonisation of energy, energy storage, and hydrogen economy.
Dr Qing Wang
Dr Qing Wang is an Associate Professor and the International Coordinator within the Department of Engineering at Durham University. Her research interests focus on measurement and instrumentation, life cycle engineering, operation research and enterprise supply networks design.
Dr Yaodong Wang
Yaodong Wang’s research: biofuel petrol/diesel-engine and trigeneration of heat/cooling/power with energy storage; biomass gasification, anaerobic digestion and combustion; renewable energy systems; Organic Rankine Cycle; thermal energy management; building energy saving; Miller Cycle to reduce NOx emissions from engines; Flameless Oxidation to reduce NOx emissions from gas turbine and power plant.
Professor Fred Worrall
Fred is Professor of Environmental Chemistry. His research has focused on water quality and on greenhouse gas dynamics in nature. He is currently working on the restoration and enhancement of greenhouse gas sequestration in natural systems especially peatlands; and the impact of energy exploitation on the environment.
Nora is a social anthropologist, artist, and architectural engineer. She has an architecture degree from Technical University Munich and a PhD in social anthropology from SOAS University of London. As an anthropologist of infrastructure and the (built) environment, she maintains a multidisciplinary practice that combines ethnography, architecture, and arts-based sensory/visual methodologies.
Dr Karena Yan
Dr Ji Yan, Karena, is Associate Professor in Marketing at Durham University Business School. Her current main research interests fall into– innovation and technology management. In particular, her research focuses on innovation policy impact, cross-border innovation management, foreign R&D funds attraction, the innovation activities among customers, suppliers and competitors and integrate their processes to generate innovation performance.
Dr Shunmin Zhu is a Marie Curie Fellow at the Department of Engineering, Durham University. He previously held postdoctoral positions at Imperial College London and Chinese Academy of Sciences, respectively. His research aims to develop advanced thermal energy technologies for power, heating and cooling that can minimize primary-energy use and reduce CO2 emissions.