Staff

Professor Colin Snape - MEGS Director

Prof. Colin Snape (FRSE) has been involved in fuel science and related disciplines for over 30 years having worked at the Coal Research Establishment of British Coal before moving to the University of Strathclyde in 1987 and then to the University of Nottingham in 2000. 

His current research programme encompasses applied geochemistry focussing on novel pyrolysis methods to aid oil exploration, heavy oil production from alternative feedstocks, including coal and biomass, fundamental aspects of combustion and carbonisation, together with developing adsorbents for CO₂ capture both in combustion and gasification and for  the control of other pollutants, including mercury. 

Colin has 250 peer reviewed publications and honours include the 2006 Henry Storch award from the American Chemical Society for lifelong achievement in fuel science.  He is Director of the EPSRC Engineering Doctorate Centre in Efficient Fossil Energy Technologies and has led the Midlands Energy Graduate School since June 2009.

Doctor Bushra Al-Duri

Dr Bushra Al-Duri is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham.

Her main research interest is Supercritical Water (SCW) mediated reactions for wastewater treatment, waste minimisation and production of energy (clean fuels and electricity), among other works. She is the Bio-energy Champion in the Energy@Birmingham Initiative, supported by the Vice Chancellor.

She recently won a Research Grant Award of £750k from the EPSRC in Supercritical Coal Fired Power Plants, in collaboration with Electrical Engineering at Warwick University, Tsinghua University and NCEPU in China. Industrial partners are E-On UK Ltd., Emerson UK Ltd. and Scottish Powers. She is the lead Investigator in Chemical Engineering at Birmingham. She has recently returned from an EPSRC-supported UK-China Energy Conference in Beijing, where she represented the Project.

Bushra completed 16 PhD [programmes and has over 90 publications in Wastewater Treatment, Reactions & Biocatalysis, and Supercritical Fluids. She also has on-going collaborations with international institutions, including University of Tokyo.

Her future plans include expanding of the research in Energy and Environment; focusing on combining existing processes with supercritical water technology as the next generation of processes for waste minimisation and energy production, which complies with the increasing concerns over carbon emission and hence global warming.

Bushra was appointed as MEGS Deputy Director at the beginning of April 2011.

Doctor Paul Rowley - MEGS Deputy Director

Paul Rowley is the Deputy Director of MEGS, and a senior lecturer within Loughborough University’s Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST). His PhD research in the Department of Materials Sciences at the University of Cambridge was concerned with corrosion protection of fossil-fuel generating systems, and he carried out subsequent Post Doctoral research at the National Research Council of Canada and University of New South Wales in Australia. In total he has been working in the energy sector for over 20 years (including a spell in industry with BP Solar), and currently leads a team of 6 researchers at Loughborough engaged in multi-parametric modelling and evaluation of community-scale sustainable energy systems.

Paul currently leads a £1M SHINE-ZC zero carbon community energy programme, and is the technical lead on two TSB ‘Retrofit for the Future’ low carbon social housing refurbishment projects. In addition, his international portfolio work includes research commissioned by Alcatel-Lucent’s USA-based Bell Labs, which involves the development of low carbon whole-system techno-economic solutions for future ICT networks.

Justyna Gruszkos

Justyna is the Administrator of MEGS and a member of the Management Group, based at the University of Nottingham. 

Educated at the University of Information Technology and Management (UITM) and University of Derby, she obtained degrees in journalism (BA) , management (BA) and economy (MA). Before joining MEGS she worked for the University of Derby, Schunk GmbH & Co, Pratt & Whitney and UITM.

Justyna is responsible for the managing of the School's administration, organisation of events and providing MEGS students with help and information. She also edits MEGS Newsletter.

Doctor Helen Turner 

Helen Turner is a member of the MEGS Management Group. She supports MEGS through her role as Midlands Energy Consortium Manager. The Midlands Energy Consortium is the overarching collaboration in energy between the Universities of Birmingham, Loughborough and Nottingham. MEGS is one of a portfolio of MEC projects. 

Helen is based at Loughborough University but regularly visits all three MEGS institutions. Before joining the MEC Helen had roles at the Royal Society of Chemistry and Sheffield University. Helen studied at Leeds University and her PhD looked at refractory ceramics.

Professor Gavin Walker

Gavin Walker is a member of the MEGS Management Group and a recently appointed the Sir Harry and Lady Djanogly Chair in Sustainable Energy at the Energy Technologies Research Institute at University of Nottingham.

Gavin joined the University in 1997, having graduated from the Durham University. He has built-up an internationally leading hydrogen storage research group and is involved in collaborations both nationally through UKSHEC, and internationally via the International Energy Agencies collaboration on hydrogen storage (Task 22). He has a current portfolio of research in excess of £2.5 million. Gavin’s research interests are growing beyond this to hydrogen production and thermal energy storage.

Professor Philip Eames

Philip Eames is Professor of Renewable Energy and Director of the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST). His research focuses on various aspects of renewable energy systems, energy in buildings and thermal energy storage. He is a member of the MEGS Management Group.

Doctor Paul Anderson

Paul Anderson is a Reader in Inorganic and Materials Chemistry, and a Leader of the Materials Chemistry Research Theme within the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham. He is a current member of the EPSRC College and has served regularly as a reviewer for the USDOE Hydrogen Energy Programme funding panels. He acts as one of the Management Group members.

As a head of the Hydrogen Storage Chemistry Group he leads an EPSRC, AWM and International Partnership for Hydrogen Energy (IPHE) sponsored research programme focussing on the fundamental chemistry of solid state hydrogen storage and the development of new types of hydrogen storage materials for use either in safe hydrogen delivery systems or reversible hydrogen stores. This work has recently uncovered an important link between the lithium ion conductivity of certain materials and the kinetics of hydrogen desorption and reabsorption, and resulted in the discovery of two new promising classes of mixed anion complex hydrides.

Paul’s broader research interests include the use of porous materials such as zeolites for the design of new materials that may exhibit negative thermal expansion, the ability to capture, store or purify gases, or act as precursors for the production of high quality metal and semiconducting wires.

Paul believes strongly in the value of an integrated approach to energy research allowing new fundamental science to feed quickly into the development of improved energy systems. MEGS has a vital role to play in bringing together researchers from different disciplines, young and old, and Paul is keen to encourage more graduate students who believe their research has potential applications in energy to register with MEGS.

Doctor Trevor Drage

Whilst employed as an ESPRC Advanced Research Fellow Dr Trevor Drage has been involved in the delivery of taught course to both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Dr Drage has been module convenor for the past three years for the 4th Year Chemical Engineering, Fuel Technology Module (H84FTE). He has recently undertaken a significant review and update of this module, which will, from the 2009/10 academic year, be delivered as Power Generation and Carbon Capture (H84PGC). This module will be core for all Research Engineers on the EngD in Efficient Fossil Energy Technologies.

Jointly with the School of Chemistry, Dr Drage is responsible for delivering the first year Green Chemistry and Processes Module (F11GCP). Both of these modules teach the theory and application of carbon abatement technologies. Additionally, he has provided support to other modules either delivering lectures or teaching on fieldtrips. In addition to the delivery of current modules, Dr Drage has been responsible for the development of a new Masters by Research course in clean fossil energy, which will be taught across the three Midlands Energy Consortium partners. Other teaching activities have included the Essen-Nottingham Energy Challenge, supervision and assessment of MEng and MSc research projects.

Doctor Jung Sik Kim

Dr Jung-Sik Kim is a lecturer in Energy Storage and Demand Reduction at the Loughborough University. He was a researcher for 3 years at the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) where he developed fabrication processes for parts of aeroplanes and automobiles. His PhD research at the University of Birmingham was focused on a development of micro combustion engine in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Prior to joining Loughborough University, for 4 years he was a research associate in the Department of Materials at the Imperial College of London, where he investigated energy materials within a £2.1M EPSERC SUPERGEN consortium project on ‘Fuel Cells: Powering a Greener Future’. In addition, he is on the Oversea Advisory Board of KIMM that develops low carbon transportation systems on national scale. EPSRC supports his new project which is about modelling of SOFC degradation.

Jung-Sik currently leads Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) research and has a strong interest in applying fuel cells technologies towards low carbon vehicles development. He is interested in diversifying SOFC technological applications to develop Fuel Cell Vehicles(FCVs), filters and sensors for zero carbon emission transportation systems.

Doctor Corrado di Maria

Corrado Di Maria is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on the interface between environmental and energy policy and technological change, on the optimal regulation of natural resource use, including the economics of global climatic change and on economic development.

Corrado’s recent work has investigated the economics of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme in terms of incentives to technological change, its consequences for firms’ competitiveness and the associated transaction costs.

The possibility to integrate an economic perspective in MEGS activities is an exciting challenge and Corrado looks forward to discuss possible cooperation and supervision with MEGS scholars.