The ZERO Thesis Awards recognise outstanding students in postgraduate taught courses in zero-carbon energy transition and related subjects at the University of Oxford. The inaugural winners, announced in November 2025, were Joy Hou, Sunshine Tanphiphat and Morgan Smith, and the case studies from their award-winning dissertations are now published on this website.
Joy Hou’s project entitled ‘Greenwashing and Accountability in the U.S. Meat Industry‘ analysed how industrial meat companies frame methane emissions in communications, portraying them as temporary or manageable through technological fixes. Her work argued that these narratives risk obscuring current climate impacts and may at times constitute deceptive environmental marketing, offering insights relevant to emerging climate‑washing litigation and regulatory scrutiny worldwide.
Sunshine Tanphiphat’s thesis ‘Beyond Steady-State CCES: Modelling Frictional Losses and Dispatch Dynamics‘ enhanced existing CCES (Carbon Capture Energy Storage) models by adding realistic geological, frictional, and renewable‑coupling dynamics. Using adapted equations, solvers, and lookup tables, it compared supercritical, transcritical and air‑based systems. The findings revealed performance limits and opportunities, showing how hybrid carbon‑and‑energy systems can better support Net Zero through integrated, flexible operation.
Morgan Smith project, Evaluating Electricity Market Design using Agent-Based Modelling, used a model of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas market to compare uniform and zonal electricity pricing. She found that locational pricing better guides investment to constrained, high‑demand areas, reducing congestion and limiting costly grid expansion. Her findings can inform policy debates for the EU and UK and highlight the value of agent‑based modelling for market‑design analysis.
True to the ZERO Institute’s interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary ethos, the cases studies showcase how research in different disciplines contributes to vital aspects of the zero-carbon energy transition.
