PUBLIC LECTURE
This year's East Midlands lecture was given by Professor Dame Julia King, The Baroness Brown of Cambridge DBE FREng FRS FMedSci, on the topic of 'Delivering Net Zero: so much to do, so little time'.
In this talk, Baroness Brown assessed the current situation and looked at the challenges ahead to meet the UK’s Net Zero target, including the dramatic changes to our energy system that will be needed to decarbonise our lives and the economy.
The lecture was hosted by the Academy's East Midlands Lead Fellow, Professor Trevor Benson FREng, and took place at the University of Nottingham.
The Baroness Brown of Cambridge DBE FREng FRS FMedSci
Baroness Brown was the Academy’s (then known as the Fellowship of Engineering) first Senior Research Fellow, sponsored by British Gas. She subsequently spent eight years in senior engineering and executive roles at Rolls-Royce plc and two years as Chief Executive of the Institute of Physics, before returning to academia as principal of the engineering faculty at Imperial College London in 2004. She was Vice-Chancellor of Aston University from 2006 to 2016. She now sits as a crossbench Peer in the House of Lords and Chairs the Science and Technology Select Committee. Baroness Brown’s interests include climate change mitigation and the low carbon economy. She was deputy Chair of the Climate Change Committee from 2008 to 2021 and continues to chair its Adaptation Committee. She is a non-executive director of Ørsted and of Ceres Power and chairs the Carbon Trust and STEM Learning Ltd.