Executive Committee 2010-2011

Hanno Svoboda, President

Hanno is studying for a PhD in Neuroscience. He holds a Bachelor in Biotechnology (First Class) from the University of Heidelberg, Germany and spent part of his studies at Imperial College London. Although his research is not directly related to Energy, he is aware of the geopolitical and environmental challenges of current technology. Hanno is interested in European energy policies and renewable technologies, i.e. biofuels.

Parisa Bastani, Vice President

Parisa is studying for an Mphil in Technology Policy. Her current research involves analysis of the automotive industry approaches to climate change mitigation. Parisa graduated from Mechanical Engineering in 2009 (First Class Hons) from the University of British Columbia, Canada. Her background is in automotive engineering and racing. Parisa has joined CUEN to raise awareness about global climate change in the industry, and contribute to finding solutions to industrial climate change mitigation.

Paul (Wen) Liu, Secretary

Paul read Chemical Engineering at Selwyn College, Cambridge and received an MEng and a BA degree in 2009. After graduation, he has become a PhD student in the Combustion Group from Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Cambridge. His research work looks at the use of chemical-looping technique to produce pure hydrogen from coals with inherent CO2 separation. Paul joined CUEN in 2009 and he has a strong interest in renewable and carbon-free energy technologies.

Saquib Sultan, Student Advisor

Saquib is studying for a PhD in Chemical Engineering. His current research involves the utilisation of natural and synthetic calcium sorbents for the removal of carbon dioxide from flue gas streams, in order to produce a pure stream of CO2 for sequestration. He holds an MEng, also in Chemical Engineering, from Imperial College London, having graduated in 2008. Saquib joined CUEN at the end of 2008 in order to help raise awareness of possible energy problems and to foster dialogue in order to reach solutions.

Arjan Abeynaike, Student Advisor

Arjan is studying for a PhD in Chemical Engineering, carrying out research into the separation of glycerol in biodiesel production. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Arjan joined CUEN in 2008 because of his awareness of global energy problems and his desire to contribute towards their solutions.

Jason Cleeton, Student Advisor

Jason read Engineering at Churchill College, Cambridge, specialising in the area of Energy and The Environment. Since graduating in 2007, he has continued his studies in Cambridge as a PhD research student. His current work investigates the use of coal and biomass in the generation of clean hydrogen via the process of chemical-looping combustion, a way of inherently separating carbon dioxide from other combustion products. Jason was a Publicity officer in last year's CUEN committee.

Professor John Young, Senior Treasurer

Prof. Young is the Hopkinson and ICI Professor of Applied Thermodynamics and a Professorial Fellow of King's College. He read Engineering Science at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1966-69 and obtained his Ph.D from Birmingham University in 1973. In 1976 he joined the Cambridge University Engineering Department and worked at the Whittle Turbomachinery Laboratory in West Cambridge until 1999 when he moved to the Hopkinson Laboratory on the main Department of Engineering site,CUED.

Marc Stettler, Junior Treasurer

Marc Stettler is a PhD student investigating environmental impacts and energy consumption at airports within the context of their surroundings and forecast growth in air travel. Prior to starting his PhD in 2009, Marc completed an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development in Cambridge, with his research focussing on travel mode choice. Marc has a BSc in Natural Sciences (Maths and Physics) from the University of Durham.

Amit Mulji, Student Advisor

Amit is studying for a PhD in Chemical Engineering at Clare Hall. His research involves researching inkjet rheology and processing. He read Chemistry at Imperial College London and holds a Masters of Science. Amit joined CUEN in 2008 because of his awareness of potential energy production from fuel and solar cells from his undergraduate degree and his desire to broaden his knowledge of practical solutions to the world's energy problems. As a member of CUEN he aims to aid the committee in maintain and developing the website to the societies need.

Giulia Privitera, Content Team

Giulia is a research student working towards the PhD degree in Cambridge University Engineering Department and Wolfson College. She holds a Bachelor in Physics and a MPhys in Condensed Matter Physics from the University of Pisa, Italy. She is working in the Nanomaterials and Spectroscopy Group at the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE), and her research is focused on the development of nanostructured transparent conductors for optoelectronic applications, mainly photovoltaic devices. Besides technological aspects, she is strongly interested in the environmental and social impact of renewable energies and in sustainable development.

Rosamund Healey, Content Team

Rosamund is studying for her PhD in Sociology at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Rosamund is particularly interested in the relationship between society and waste and her research focuses on the factors that contribute to the structure and regulation of the waste management industry in the UK. She joined CUEN as she sees energy resources, particularly in terms of renewables, as being a key element in her research and would like to meet other students who are actively engaged in the design and implementation of technologies related to this area. She holds a BA from the University of Limerick in Ireland and graduate degrees from Trinity College Dublin and the University of Cambridge.

Jun Chen, Content Team

Jun is studying MPhil in Environmental Design in Architecture in Homerton College, Cambridge. She is interested in energy - behaviour research with a focus on developing countries. She will continue her research in PhD studies afterwards and is propelled to help China meet its energy saving goal through sustainable architecture designs. She joined CUEN in 2009 to get more involved in the energy related activities.

Hatice Tuncer, Content Team

Hatice is a postdoctoral researcher, working on organic photovoltaics at the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE), University of Cambridge. After graduating from the Polytechnic of North London with a BSc in Electronics and Communication Engineering, she worked in industry as an RF Design Engineer in Turkey, Finland and the UK. She took post-graduate courses on Digital Signal Processing at Tampere University of Technology and Electromagnetics at Helsinki University of Technology in Finland. She worked for Polytechnic PLC, ASELSAN Inc, Nokia Mobile Phones, Philips Paging and AT&T Laboratories-Cambridge. She gained her PhD on RF MEMS devices from the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge in 2008. Her current interests include wireless design, sensors, photovoltaics and renewable energy solutions, which led her to join CUEN.

Brenda Parker, Content Team

Brenda is a postdoctoral researcher, working on the downstream processing of microalgae for biofuels as part of the Algal Bioenergy Consortium at Cambridge. She holds an MEng and a PhD in Biochemical Engineering from University College London. Part of her undergraduate degree was spent at Caltech, where she developed her research interests in environmental biotechnology and the use of enzymes as biocatalysts.

Alan Russell, Logistics Team

Al is currently completing his PhD in the Chemical Engineering Department of Cambridge University, developing a method of recycling plastics back into oil. He believes that a massive undertaking is required to "retool" human civiilisation for sustainability; it is this belief that led him to participate in CUEN as a forum to disseminate awareness, discussion, and solutions to these issues.

Tzu-Ching, Logistics Team

Tzu-Ching is studying for her PhD at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Newnham College, University of Cambridge. Her current research investigates second generation biodiesel in the use of algae. This work involves scaling-up and intensifying algal production and downstream harvesting in order to increase the sustainability. She holds a BEng from the National Taiwan University, Taiwan, having graduated in 2008. Tzu-Ching joined CUEN at the end of 2008 because of her interest in renewable energy and environmental biotechnology.

Arthur Sebert, External Relations

Arthur is currently studying the MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development. He studied Engineering in France and has lived in Beijing, China for a year before coming to Cambridge. He was working for the French Development Agency (AFD) on projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gases emissions. After the MPhil, he wants to work in the energy sector, probably back to a developing country, to contribute to making energy more accessible and sustainable.

Hassan Khawaja, Student Advisor

Hassan study engineering at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He is specializing in the computational fluid dynamics and discrete element modeling of the fluidized beds. His undergraduate degree is in aerospace engineering. Since graduating in 2007, he completed MPhil in Engineering at Cambridge and continuing to PhD. His current work involves validation and improvement of CFD-DEM models for fluidized bed. This work involves building understanding of the behavior of two phase flow which will further help in the designing of effective chemical reactors.