Professor John Loughhead spent six years as Chief Scientific Adviser to both the UK Department of Energy & Climate Change and the Department of Business Energy & Industrial Strategy. He was previously Executive Director of the UK Energy Research Centre and Vice-President Technology & Intellectual Property for the Alstom group.
He has extensive experience of policy development in the area of sustainable energy, of public support mechanisms for multi- and mono-disciplinary technology research, and of leading large development projects and developing technology portfolios in industry. His international activity includes chairing the 25 nation Mission Innovation Steering Committee, decarbonisation advisory positions with several countries, and leading strategy reviews for Europe on topics including fuel cells, hydrogen, nuclear fusion.
John is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the UK, China and Australia Academies of Engineering and of the Chinese Society of Electrical Engineers, Past-President of the UK Institution of Engineering & Technology and honorary Professor at the Universities of Nanjing, Tsinghua, Science & Technology Beijing and Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Energy Thermophysics.
He is currently Professor of Clean Energy at the University of Birmingham, Chair of the Redwheel-Turquoise ClimateTech Fund and of the Low Carbon Innovation Fund, member of the Governing Council of the University of York, and has several other public and private sector advisory roles.