Summary
Dr Zoe M Harris is a NERC Industrial Innovation Research Fellow in the in the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London. Her fellowship is assessing the feasibility of using vertical farming for second generation dedicated bioenergy crops. This work is being undertaken with collaborators from BEIS, Drax, University of California, Davis and the University of Southampton.
Prior to her fellowship, Zoe worked as a Research Associate in the Centre for Environmental Policy for nine months working on two projects (i) MAGLUE project: undertaking full systems optimisation modelling of bioenergy imports to the UK, and (ii) Assess-BECCS project: assessing the feasibility of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage in the UK.
Dr Harris completed her PhD research at the University of Southampton looking at the impacts of land use change to bioenergy on the greenhouse gas (GHG) and carbon balance. This work was part of the ELUM project funded by the ETI. Dr Harris lead the first work package of the project. She undertook a systematic review of the literature and published a meta-analysis to assess the current state of knowledge of land use change to bioenergy in the UK. She also established a field site on a commercial bioenergy plantation comparing the ecosystem and soil fluxes of short rotation coppice willow and an adjacent grassland, using techniques such as eddy covariance, gas sampling, physiological measurements and soil sampling.
After completing her PhD, Dr Harris spent a further year as a researcher at Southampton assisting on various project. In June 2016, she joined the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) as a Science Officer. Here she worked on modelling GHG mitigation options for agriculture which would subsequently feed into the UK Emissions Reduction Plan. Dr Harris also undertook work reviewing returns from other government departments assessing the Ecosystem Services impacts of new policies. After 4 months in this Department, Dr Harris moved into the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), formally the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). As a Higher Executive Officer, Dr Harris was a policy lead on carbon leakage and benchmarking for the EU Emissions Trading Team (ETS). This work included developing policy for the next phase of the EU ETS and working closely with EU partners in negotiations. Dr Harris also worked with the Department of Transport (DfT) on options for the aviation EU ETS. Dr Harris joined Imperial College London in February 2017, bringing with her lessons learnt from time spent in government departments.
Publications
Journals
Dondini M, Alberti G, Delle Vedove G, et al., 2017, Evaluation of the ECOSSE model to predict heterotrophic soil respiration by direct measurements, European Journal of Soil Science, Vol:68, ISSN:1351-0754, Pages:384-393
Jenkins JR, Viger M, Arnold EC, et al., 2016, Biochar alters the soil microbiome and soil function: results of next-generation amplicon sequencing across Europe, Gcb Bioenergy, Vol:9, ISSN:1757-1693, Pages:591-612
Harris ZM, Alberti G, Viger M, et al., 2016, Land-use change to bioenergy: grassland to short rotation coppice willow has an improved carbon balance, Gcb Bioenergy, Vol:9, ISSN:1757-1693, Pages:469-484
Dondini M, Richards MIA, Pogson M, et al., 2015, Simulation of greenhouse gases following land-use change to bioenergy crops using the ECOSSE model: a comparison between site measurements and model predictions, Gcb Bioenergy, Vol:8, ISSN:1757-1693, Pages:925-940
Harris ZM, Spake R, Taylor G, 2015, Land use change to bioenergy: A meta-analysis of soil carbon and GHG emissions, Biomass and Bioenergy, Vol:82, ISSN:0961-9534, Pages:27-39