We have hosted a number of successful events, UCL-Energy PhD students Carrie Behar, Mike Fell and Tia Kansara all successfully passed their vivas and it was a particularly good term for highlighting our exceptional staff at UCL-Energy.
Several UCL-Energy staff members were honoured at the Women at UCL: Presence and absence exhibition, currently on display on UCL central campus. Dr Lai Fong Chiu, Dr Catalina Spataru and Michelle Shipworth were nominated by students to be a part of this exhibition. This coincided nicely with International Women’s Day on March 8th, for which a number UCL-Energy staff and students submitted blogs about diversity, inspirational women and the progress towards equality.
We’ve also had staff members recently appointed to prominent boards. In February UCL-Energy Deputy Director Neil Strachan was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of the Energy Systems Catapult. Dr Tristan Smith, Reader in Energy and Shipping at UCL-Energy has been selected to be on Carbon War Room’s recently launched Shipping Efficiency Advisory Board.
This term we also held the second in our series of events organised jointly by UCL-Energy and the French Embassy, under the auspices of the long-established relationship between the French Embassy’s Science and Technology Department and UCL’s Grand Challenges programme. This event titled “The Paris Agreement - What does it mean for Africa?” was organised by UCL’s Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) and the UCL Energy Institute, in collaboration with the French Embassy and with support from the Climate Development Knowledge Network (CDKN).
The event consisted of a highly productive workshop followed by a high-level panel discussion about the implications of the Paris Agreement for Africa and its development. The panel discussion addressed questions such as: Does the Paris Agreement satisfy the African negotiations position? What are the implications for Africa of the science in the IPCC fifth assessment report? And, how can we move from political agreement to concrete action? And there was a special focus on the African Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), nationally determined contributions, adaptation communications and how to improve African input to the upcoming IPCC sixth assessment report (AR6). You can read about the event highlights and watch a full video of the evening’s high panel discussion below:
The event was well attended with great participation and questions from the audience. We are looking forward to Term 3 and our third and final event which will be taking place on June 22nd.
Best wishes,
UCL-Energy Director
Bob Lowe