Academics and alum from across the University delivered a panel session at 10.00am entitled 'Moving People: Transitioning Transport to Net Zero'. 

With the recent 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) events, the need to achieve net zero is increasingly at the forefront of industrial and government strategies.  To meet these ambitious targets, the transport sector will need to draw on skills and experience across a multitude of sectors. The panel will discuss the emerging challenges in securing our future energy supply, integrating advanced vehicle technologies into our public transport systems, how we can stimulate the necessary changes in public mobility behaviours, and how all of these issues need to be addressed as a single system-wide problem to really achieve our net-zero transport system ambitions.

Professor Juliana Early, Head of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, moderated the panel session between Professor Ruth Hunter, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Dr Robert Best, Director of Engineering, Wrightbus, and Professor David Rooney, Dean of Internationalisation, Queen’s University Belfast.

Speakers 

Professor Juliana Early (Head of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast)

Juliana Early a is Professor, the Head of the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the current Director of the WTECH Research Centre at Queen’s. WTECH is a strategic partnership with Wrightbus, with an emphasis on delivering low TRL solutions which will translate into solutions for future generations of clean transport technologies in the public transport sector. Her research work has secured prestigious funding through EU Framework 7, Horizon 2020, EPSRC, Innovate-UK and the Advanced Propulsion Centre, participating in a number of research collaborations. She has a particular passion for understanding how we can evolve interdisciplinary solutions to many of the emerging global challenges and how skill sets of the next generation of our engineers need to evolve to respond to the challenges in the Sustainable Development Goals.

Professor Ruth Hunter (Professor, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast)

Ruth Hunter is a Professor in the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast. Her work primarily involves investigating how we can improve our urban environment for better population health, including evaluation of natural experiments (such as large-scale urban regeneration programmes). She particular expertise in the application of systems-thinking and complexity science methods and has secured > £12M in research grants from the NIHR, MRC, ESRC and GCRF-British Council. She is a member of the Public Health Research funding panel for the NIHR and recently held a Career Development Fellowship from the NIHR on public health interventions for health behaviour change. She is a member of the WHO expert panel on urban green space interventions, Non Communicable Disease prevention, Health and the SDGs and other aspects of urban environment and health, and an executive board member for WHO Belfast Healthy Cities.

Dr Robert Best (Director of Engineering, Wrightbus)

Dr Robert Best is the Director of Engineering at Wrightbus, leading the development of next generation transportation solutions within the company.  Following the award of his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University Belfast, he has continued to advance his expertise in powertrain design, developing new and advanced powertrain solutions for next generation vehicle topologies.  As the Director of Engineering for Wrightbus, he leads the team delivering leading edge battery electric and fuel cell technologies for the public transport sector, advising operators and government departments on technology adoption.

Professor David Rooney (Dean of Internationalisation, Queen’s University Belfast)

David Rooney is a Professor of Chemical Engineering in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast, and the Dean of Internationalisation for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Faculty. His research focuses on energy generation and materials. He is the Director of the Sustainable Energy Research Group at Queen’s and Director of the Bryden Centre, a cross-border renewable research centre. He works with oil and gas companies, regional industry and government to advise on Zero Carbon technologies.