Energy Futures Bulletin
Q1 2023
Prof. Neil Beattie elected Fellow of the Institute of Physics
Prof. Neil Beattie has been elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP) as acknowledgement of his significant impact on his sector through his accomplishments in physics. After his PhD studies and time in industry Neil joined Northumbria in 2009 and together with colleagues has developed Northumbria’s Physics degree programmes, was a founding academic subject specialist for NUSTEM and led the EPSRC CDT in Renewable Energy Northeast Universities (ReNU)
You can find out more about this at: https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/news-events/news/professorof-energy-innovation-elected-fellow-of-the-institute-of-physics/
Grant Updates
The current funding landscape in Energy Futures.
• Prof. Guillaume Zoppi and team have been awarded an EPSRC Strategic Equipment Grant to create an open access thin-film sputtering facility known as TF-FAB
• Dr Muhammad Shahzad has received an Innovation-toCommercialisation of University Research (ICURe) award of to support a project for innovative air-conditioning systems for green buildings and data centres
• Dr Shahzad also hosted the first SAFECONOMY Workshop (https://www.safeconomy.net/) in December.
IDRT Research Conference
In early January, Northumbria University hosted its first Interdisciplinary Research Themes conference Energy Futures hosted a panel discussion focused on impact, including the importance of articulating a research problem, and an interactive stand with exhibits on wireless power transfer led by Dr Haimeng Wu
EFORES Workshop
This event shared findings from the EPSRC-Siemens joint-funded EFORES research project led by Dr Daniel Dai. It included speakers from industry and local authorities and engaged with a panel of external experts in electric vehicles charging and net zero road transport
EPSRC CDT in ReNU
• Dr Yongtao Qu has secured one of the UK's most prestigious fellowships for international early career researchers via award of The Royal Society-Newton International Fellowship to Northumbria for the first time The project involves using thin film solar cells to simultaneously harvest energy and transfer data optically.
In November, the ReNU CDT hosted its first in-person CDT Week since 2019 This involved a wide range of high-quality presentations from Cohorts 1-4 and the 8th North East Energy Materials and Systems meeting with >30 industry guests. The week also included a site visit for doctoral candidates to the Hydrogen House in Gateshead.
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