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MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development

global challenges, engineering solutions
 
Marcos Pelenur wins Dow Sustainability Innovation Prize and 'Leader of Tomorrow' award

23rd May 2011

We are delighted to announce that one of our PhD students, Marcos Pelenur, was awarded a 2011 Dow Sustainability Innovation Prize. The Dow Chemical Company awarded three prizes, which aimed to celebrate the energy, commitment and enthusiasm of sustainability students and their supervisors. Marcos' award was based on his interdisciplinary PhD research, which investigates the social and technical context of domestic energy retrofits, in order to improve the efficiency of the UK built environment. He combines sociology methods with an engineering focus, looking for the first time at the social factors affecting domestic energy use.

We are also pleased to announce that based on his Public Policy essay contribution to the St. Gallen Wings of Excellence Award, Marcos was also selected as a 'Leader of Tomorrow', and invited to participate in the 41st St. Gallen Symposium in Switzerland. 200 Leaders of Tomorrow were selected from around the world to participate at the week long symposium, along with 600 outstanding personalities from the fields of business, politics, science and society. Marcos' essay was titled: “Decentralising public goods and protecting society values: a role for community empowerment.”

 

 

Course Overview

Context

The need to engage in better problem definition through careful dialogue with all stakeholder groups and a proper recognition of context.

Perspectives

An ability to work with specialists from other disciplines and professional groups acknowledging that technical innovation and business skills also must be understood, nurtured and combined as precursors to the successful implementation of sustainable solutions.

Change

An understanding of mechanisms for managing change in organisations so future engineers are equipped to play a leadership role.

Tools

An awareness of a range of assessment frameworks, sustainability metrics and methodologies such as Life Cycle Analysis, Systems Dynamics, Multi-Criteria Decision making and Impact Assessment.