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Marcelle McManus joins CSCT team as new Centre Co-Director

Professor McManus’s added expertise signifies a landmark in the direction and scope of the Centre.

Marcelle McManus, Professor of Energy and Environmental Engineering at the University of Bath, has recently joined the CSCT directorship team, complementing the sustainable technology focus of the Centre with her expertise in circular economy and life cycle assessment (LCA). Marcelle will be sharing the Centre’s directorship with Professor Matthew Davidson.

Over the last few months, the CSCT has been developing a new strategy to ensure that the Centre remains at the forefront of research, training and outreach in sustainable technologies. To reflect the CSCT’s increasing emphasis in research on systems beyond chemical science and engineering, Professor Marcelle McManus has agreed to join the Centre as a Co-director. Professor McManus brings to the CSCT her own wealth of experience in systems analysis, as well as the expertise of a number of her colleagues, who will also become increasingly involved with the Centre.

In response to the new activities and wider-scoping remit of the Centre, the CSCT team also considered appropriate to keep the Centre’s well-known acronym but modify its name to ‘Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies’, a title that reflects these changes in strategic direction. The EPSRC CDT in Sustainable Chemical Technologies remains a core activity of the CSCT with no change in leadership. Other core activities the Centre will focus on are innovation — through the Sustainable Technologies Business Acceleration Hub (STBAH) —, leadership of a number of major grants, and being a home for Early Career and Visiting Fellows.

Marcelle joined the University of Bath as a Research Officer on a large EPSRC project. She undertook her  PhD in Life Cycle Assessment of Alternative Fluid Power Systems whilst she was a researcher. Her contribution has been recognised on various occasions, both within her home institution and beyond. In 2008 she was a joint recipient of the IMechE George Stephenson Medal for her work on wind turbines.  In 2011, she obtained the University of Bath John Willis Award and, in 2017, the University of Bath Excellence in Doctoral Supervision Award. In 2019, Professor McManus was named Most Inspirational Woman in STEM in the West Women Awards.

She primarily works on studying the life cycle impacts of different technologies, assessing how to produce energy and power in a way that minimises carbon emissions, and analysing which sustainable options provide the best and most effective strategy to use the resources we have.

Professor McManus says, “I am very excited to be joining this dynamic team and research centre. The next decade will be critical for our ability to respond to climate change and other global challenges. The CSCT is well placed to create materials and technologies that will help minimise our impact. I am pleased to be able to play a part in this.”

Professor Davidson says, “I’m very pleased to welcome Marcelle to the Centre, as we evolve to encompass more systems-based aspects of sustainable technologies, her expertise in co-directing the Centre will be invaluable and I look forward to another 10 years of growth catalysed by her leadership.”

By 3 February 2020
 

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