Patricia Thornley

Patricia Thornley is a physicist and fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering with over 30 years’ experience working in sustainable energy. She has led the Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute at Aston University for 6 years, was editor in chief of the Elsevier Q1 journal Biomass and Bioenergy for 6 years and has been director of the UK’s national SUPERGEN Bioenergy hub (www.supergen-bioenergy.net opens in new tab/window) since 2012, with responsibility for co-ordinating research into bioenergy and strategically guiding its membership (of over 30 academic and 20 industrial/policy partners) to focus on sustainable bioenergy and biofuel development. She is director of the NET²Zero Centre for Doctoral Training in Negative Emissions Technologies (across Aston, Nottingham, Warwick and Queens Universities) and leads the Clean Maritime Policy Unit in the UK’s Decarbonising Maritime Hub.

Her research interests focus on sustainability assessment of energy systems, evaluating the environmental, economic and social consequences of implementation pathways at the interface of the academic, policy and industrial communities. She is an appointed member of the Department for Transport’s Scientific Advisory Council, is leading environmental assessment work in the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero’s Hydrogen Delivery Council and sits on the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs tree and woodlands scientific advisory group. She serves on the Royal Society’s International Strategic Priorities Fund panel, on the steering committee for the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Green Futures Fellowships and has provided expert review services for research organisations and funders in Europe, New Zealand, Brazil and China.