Confirmed Speakers
Please see below for the list of keynote/invited speakers for ICEC 2022.
Laura Bishop
Chair – Ground Source Heat Pump Association
Laura Bishop is a chartered mechanical engineer, registered with the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. She has 22 years engineering experience with companies including Rolls Royce and E.ON Connecting Energies. She runs Infinitas Design Ltd, where she undertakes the design and development of heat pump, heat network and energy storage projects for a variety of clients and is also the Chair of the Ground Source Heat Pump Association which lobbies on behalf of the industry as well as connecting others in the industry to collaborate on training, education and standards.
Chris Cooper
Principle of KnowNow Information Ltd
Chris Cooper is the co-founder of KnowNow Information and the principal of KnowNow Cities. He is a Chartered Engineering with over 18 years of experience in the Information Technology industry and is recognised as an expert in smart cities. Chris was part of the team that wrote the BSI Smart City Interoperability Framework and was previously the Smart Cities technical leader at IBM UK.
Paul Copping
Chief Technology Officer, Fawley Waterside
Paul Copping is developing the integrated digital architecture and industrial partnerships to refine and fulfil the Fawley Waterside vision for a hyper connected, sustainable, intelligent merchant city. This challenge draws on his specialist knowledge in telecoms, software, transport and artificial intelligence and brings together his 35 years of leadership experience at ICL, BT, Toshiba, Nortel Networks, TRL, the Royal Borough of Greenwich and Sightline Innovation.
Lord Toby Harris
Chair National Preparedness Commission
Lord Toby Harris is Chair of the National Preparedness Commission, President of the Institute of Strategic Risk Management, Chair of the General Dental Council, and Chair of the Fundraising Regulator. He led Reviews into London’s Terrorism Preparedness and into Self-Inflicted Deaths in Prison. Lord Harris was made a Life Peer in June 1998 and has been Chair of the Labour Peers since 2012. He is a member of the Committee on Life Beyond COVID and was a member of the Committee on Democracy and Digital Technologies, which reported in summer 2020.
Dr. Charlotte Johnson
Head of Research Programmes at the Centre for Sustainable Energy
Dr Johnson is Head of Research Programmes at the Centre for Sustainable Energy where she leads the Smart and Fair research programme. Charlotte has a decade of research experience on socio-technical energy transitions with a particular focus on social inclusion. Prior to joining CSE, she worked at UCL’s Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources focusing on community participation in urban transitions. She has worked on a range of interdisciplinary research projects, consultancies for government and industry, and public engagement projects.
Cllr Satvir Kaur
Leader of Southampton City Council
Cllr Satvir Kaur is the current leader of Southampton City Council and was elected to this role in May 2022. She became leader of the Southampton Group in May 2021 having been in office since May 2011. Councillor Kaur represents the Shirley Ward and previously graduated in History and Politics from the University of Southampton which was followed by studying law at Southampton Solent University.
Engineer Isaac Kiva
Secretary, State Department of Public Works, Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public Works, Kenya
Eng. Kiva has wide experience in public sector management, having held senior Government positions for over 20 years. He is a registered Professional Engineer with the Engineers Board of Kenya and a member of the Institution of Engineers of Kenya. Eng. Isaac Kiva joined the Board on 16th December 2009 as an Alternate Director to the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.
Dr Jens Madrian
Executive Director NEOM Energy
Dr Madrian is responsible for designing and delivering an integrated market design and sustainable energy system from scratch. Prior to joining NEOM he was the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Commercial Officer at Reactive Technologies. With over two decades of experience in the energy, infrastructure and technology sector, Dr Madrian is dedicated to delivering data technology solutions to promote the global renewable energy transition.
Chitra Nadarajah
Head of Climate Change and Environmental Strategy at Hampshire County Council
Chitra Nadarajah is the lead for Hampshire County Council (HCC) in its ambition, both for its Authority and Hampshire as a whole, to achieve carbon neutrality and resilience. Lead for the implementation of the Hampshire 2050 Commission outcomes, Chitra has worked at HCC for over 20 years with roles including Environmental Projects Team Manager, Climate Change and Energy Programme Manager and Principal Environment Officer.
Professor Alan Penn
Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, University College London
Professor Penn is a former Dean of the Bartlett faculty of the Built Environment (2009-19) and is a founding director of Space Syntax Ltd, a UCL knowledge transfer spin out with a portfolio of over 100 applied projects per year. He is currently the Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and was previously (July 2019-September 2021) Chief Scientific Adviser at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Professor John Preston
Professor of Rail Transport, University of Southampton
Professor Preston has just completed a term of office as Head of the Transportation Research Group (2015-20), having previously been Head of the Civil, Maritime and Environmental Engineering and Science Academic Unit (2011-2014), Director of the Transportation Research Group (2008-10) and Head of the School of Civil Engineering and the Environment (2010-11). His current work at Southampton includes leadership of the Solent Future Transport Zone project and of the University’s contribution to the Centre for Sustainable Travel Choices. He has held almost 160 research grants and contracts, worth over £22 million, and has published around 370 articles, book chapters, conference and working papers. He has successfully supervised over 30 doctoral students.
Professor Nick Tyler CBE
Director of UCL Centre for Transport Studies, University College London
Professor Tyler is the Director of the UCL Centre for Transport Studies and Chadwick Professor of Civil Engineering, and investigates the ways in which people interact with their immediate environments. He set up the Accessibility Research Group within the Centre for Transport Studies with a research portfolio of more than £40million for projects directed towards making the world more sympathetic to people’s needs, creating a sustainable future for both people and planet.
Dr Alan Whitehead MP
Shadow Minister for Energy and the Green New Deal
Dr Alan Whitehead is the Labour MP for Southampton, Test and has been an MP continuously since 1 May 1997. He currently undertakes the role of Shadow Minister for Energy and the Green New Deal, previously Energy and Climate Change, a role he has held since 2015.
Professor Lixiao Zhang
Professor at School of Environment, Beijing Normal University
Professor Zhang is currently a professor at School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, China. He obtained his Master degree and Ph.D. degree in environmental sciences from Peking University. Prior to joining BNU in 2005, he was a research fellow in BOKU university of Austria. Professor Zhang has been involved in research on various aspects of environmental accounting and modeling, with special focus on renewable energy systems, food-energy-water nexus and urban metabolism since 2007. Over this time, he has conducted research on life cycle assessment (LCA), Environmental Input-Output Analysis (EIOA) and Ecological Modelling techniques. Professor Zhang is also recognized for his productive and highest cited scholarly output in environmental accounting and management. He has authored over 150 peer-reviewed papers and 5 books. Professor Zhang has served as the deputy dean of School of Environment, and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation. He is also the Co-EiC of Journal of Environmental Management (IF 6.789). He has also served as principal investigator for more than 20 large-scale research projects.