Meet the team

Stephanie Hirmer is an Associate Professor of Climate Compatible Growth within the Energy and Power Group at the University of Oxford, focusing on integrating community perspectives into energy decision-making processes. She currently holds the position of Interim Research Director at CCG, where she leads the Advanced GIS Modelling of Integrated Systems Analysis. Prof. Hirmer co-founded Rural Senses Ltd., a social enterprise that emerged from her PhD research in Engineering for Sustainable Development at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Sustainable Development. This enterprise specialises in AI-enhanced data analysis and user-centric data collection, assisting project developers in efficiently and accurately addressing… [Read more]

Will Usher is the CCG Platform Manager. He is an experienced modeller and researcher of energy and infrastructure systems at KTH Royal Institute of Technology where he works as a Professor of Integrated Systems Analysis for Sustainable Development. He joined the division in 2019 and brings his experience of leading large open-source research projects to the home of OSeMOSYS, CLEWS, and OnSSET. Will Usher’s research interests bridge three related themes: model integration and infrastructure system-of-systems; energy systems optimization modelling and transition pathways; and decision-making under uncertainty and uncertainty quantification. His research approach is grounded in engineering, but highly interdisciplinary, bringing… [Read more]

Steve Pye is the CCG Contract & Publics Goods Project Manager. He is an Associate Professor of Energy Systems at the UCL Energy Institute, University College London (UCL). Steve has 15 years’ research experience on energy and climate modelling and policy analysis. His research concerns the challenge of energy system decarbonization, using different whole system energy modelling approaches, with a particular focus on scenario modelling of national and global low-carbon pathways, uncertainty assessment, and the equity and health dimensions of energy transitions. Steve’s research track record is reflected in over 40 peer review journal articles and numerous technical reports and… [Read more]

Nilay Shah oversees the CCG COP engagement. He is Director of the Centre for Process Systems Engineering at Imperial College London. He works on energy systems modelling and engineering, bio-based process systems, hydrogen infrastructures, supply chain modelling, process optimization, biochemical process design, and plant safety. He is particularly interested in the transfer of technology and expertise from academia to industry. [Read more]

Lara Allen is the CCG National Engagement Lead. She is the CEO of the Centre for Global Equality (CGE), a Cambridge-based civil society organization that enables the evolution of innovative solutions to global challenges by facilitating productive interactions between academia, civil society, government, business, and under-resourced communities in developing countries. She is also an Affiliated Lecturer in Inclusive Innovation at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, where she directs the Inclusive Innovation Programme. She has more than ten years of experience as an international development practitioner, having worked as a consultant, employee, and volunteer with grassroots… [Read more]

Adam Hawkes leads the CCG System Design Workstream. He is a Reader in Energy Systems at Imperial College London, Director of the Sustainable Gas Institute, and Programme Lead for Energy Modelling at the Grantham Institute. He is Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Transition journal, a new partner open access journal to the high impact Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. A Chartered Engineer, Dr Hawkes has more than 20 years’ experience of technical leadership and management in the field of greenhouse gas mitigation approaches, energy technology assessment, and systems design and modelling. Adam has worked on key emerging challenges… [Read more]

Jim Hall co-leads the CCG Systems Integration Workstream. He is Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks at the University of Oxford and is Director of Research in the School of Geography and the Environment. Before joining the University of Oxford in 2011 to become Director of the University’s Environmental Change Institute, Prof. Hall held academic positions in Newcastle University and the University of Bristol. Prof. Hall is internationally recognized for his research on risk analysis and decision-making under uncertainty for water resource systems, flood and coastal risk management, infrastructure systems, and adaptation to climate change. Professor Hall is a member… [Read more]

Sam Fankhauser leads the CCG Economics and Policy Workstream. He is Professor of Climate Change Economics and Policy at the University of Oxford, where he is affiliated with the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and the School of Geography and the Environment. He is also Research Director of Oxford Net Zero and a Fellow of Reuben College. Outside academia, Sam is a Non-Executive Director of CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution, and an Associate Director at economics consultancy Vivid Economics. He was an inaugural member of the UK Committee on Climate Change, on which he served from… [Read more]

Philipp is a co-lead of the Economics and Policy research workstream in CCG, focusing on potential green high-impact economic opportunities for low-income countries (e.g. power-to-X, servitisation approaches, energy for productive use) as well as the business models and policy mixes to enable these opportunities. Philipp is a Marie Curie Fellow at the Chair of Operations Management at RWTH Aachen University, and an Honorary Research Associate at the School of Geography at Oxford. He has a decade of experience in the energy sector of emerging and industrialised economies, working for the University of Oxford as well as for McKinsey & Company… [Read more]

Julia Tomei leads the CCG Policies for CCG Investment Workstream.  She is a Lecturer in Energy, Resources and Development at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources. Her research advances understandings of the human and political dimensions of energy and resource use in developing countries. Her work engages with research users from policy, academia, and industry and examines the practical and policy mechanisms that can advance sustainable development. She draws on a range of social science theories and methods in her research and regards her experience and outlook as truly interdisciplinary. She has published more than 20 papers in a range… [Read more]