Energy Futures Lab celebrates its first year with launch of new MSc

New MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures will train the next generation of energy leaders - News

Wednesday 6 December 2006
By Naomi Weston

A new MSc programme in Sustainable Energy Futures will start in October 2007 at Imperial College London, it was announced at the Energy Futures Lab first annual lecture.

The new course will combine academic and industrial experience, from 11 departments in Imperial's three faculties, to provide a unique multidisciplinary teaching programme, covering a range of topics from clean fossil fuels to sustainable transport and energy storage and transmission. Students will take a number of core modules and there will be a series of two-week long intensive modules which will include lectures from specialists in each field.

"The MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures will provide the next generation of energy leaders with the knowledge and understanding to tackle what is a truly global issue," explains Professor Sandro Macchietto , MSc Course Director.

The Energy Futures Lab was established in November 2005, to bring together the multidisciplinary skills and experience of Imperial to tackle the major issues in energy research. The Lab is supported by the Research Council's Energy Programme and strategic investment from Imperial.

The Lab seeks to forge stronger links between Imperial and the energy research community across the world. In 2006 this has been significantly enhanced through two major activities. The Lab has been donated funds from Alan Howard, an Imperial alumni, to sponsor Israeli students to study at Imperial for PhDs in energy research.

It has also been working with the Abu Dhabi government and leading universities from around the world to formulate the Masdar research network, which will see the development of world-class collaborative research projects in energy that will form part of Abu Dhabi's programme of developing a sustainable energy economy.

The Lab was launched with a multi-million pound grant from BP to fund its Urban Energy Systems project. In its first year the project has brought together academics from across Imperial and recruited new researchers and postgraduate students combining knowledge from disciplines including chemical, electrical and civil engineering with economics and ecology to better understand urban systems from an energy perspective.

To mark the Lab's first year, Dr Paul Golby, CEO of E.ON UK gave a presentation titled 'Changing Energy'. Dr Golby's presentation outlined the issues and opportunities that E.ON and the wider energy sector face in a low carbon future. Dr Golby then took questions from members of the audience.

Dr Golby added to the evening by pledging a donation to the formation of a planned Energy Integration Lab, designed to give state of the art education in the complex dynamics of electricity distribution, along with a fund for undergraduate and postgraduate prizes.

For further information please visit: www.imperial.ac.uk/energyfutureslab .