Professor Malcolm McCulloch passed away on 12th June 2026. Malcolm was a pioneering engineer, distinguished teacher, and internationally recognised leader in sustainable energy systems. He made an extraordinary contribution to the ZERO Institute, the Department of Engineering Science, the University of Oxford, and the many students, colleagues, and collaborators whose lives he touched throughout his career. He is greatly missed.
Read the ZERO Institute’s tribute to Malcolm here.
Malcolm McCulloch was Professor in Engineering Science and Group Leader of the Energy and Power Group at the University of Oxford. He was the Interim Co-Director for the initial phase of the ZERO Institute.
Malcolm’s interests were in the area related to the domestic energy sector, development of user centric demand side management technologies, and useful information to enable behaviour change. Previous work lead the spin-out Intelligent Sustainable Energy, of which Malcolm was both a founder and non-executive director. This merged to form Navetas Energy Management.
In the transport sector, his research was in developing power trains for electric vehicles. A successful project was that of the Morgan LifeCar – the first ever Hydrogen sports car. This project lead to the development of high-efficiency low-weight motors using new materials – the yokeless and segmented armature motor. This has resulted in the Oxford spin-out company Oxford Yasa Motors, of which Malcolm was a founder. He was extending the work of ICERT to create an Integrated Transport Network for Oxford.
In renewable generation, novel lightweight low speed direct coupled generators are being developed along with a transverse axis tidal turbine, leading to the spinout of Kepler Energy, of which Malcolm was also a founder and non-executive director.
In Energy for Development, he was developing technologies that leverage advanced intelligence to provide cost effective and nano and micro grid solutions that provide a scalable pathway to distributed electrification.
Malcolm McCulloch was Co-Director of the Institute for Carbon and Energy Reduction in Transport, a member of the Oxford Martin School from 2008 to 2013.
