This week sees the return of Lumiere, the dazzling light art event hosted in Durham bi-annually. This year’s event includes three installations drawing on some of our ground-breaking research.

Congratulations to Professor Jon Gluyas who has been elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society of India.

DEI fellow Professor Gavin Bridge from our Department of Geography has co-authored an article in The Conversation which claims that Rosebank shows the UK’s offshore oil regulator no longer serves the public good.

Professor Chris Groves, of our Department of Engineering, has led a national research team to design solar cells with efficiency that improves as the amount of sunlight reduces.

We welcome Simone Abram, Professor in the Department of Anthropology, as the Interim Director of the Durham Energy Institute. She took up this post on 1st September 2023. She became a Co-director of DEI in 2015 and active member of the Executive Team.

We’ve been chosen to lead a new £21.3m national research partnership focussed on decarbonising the UK maritime sector.

Congratulations to Professor Jon Gluyas who has been elected as President-designate of the world’s oldest geological society.

This award-winning research paper was co-authored by Jon Gluyas, Director of the Durham Energy Institute. It was published online in February 2022 by Earthdoc, the online Geoscience database and in 2023 it received the Norman Falcon Award for Best Paper in Petroleum Geoscience.

Professor Jon Gluyas, from the Durham Energy Institute, spoke at the Invest4Ukraine Forum, which took place in London this June. The Invest4Ukraine Forum highlights the opportunities available to invest in Ukrainian entrepreneurs and funds. Here Jon shares his analysis of the opportunities and possibilities for re-energizing Ukraine’s energy system.

Recruitment to funded PhD Scholarships with the Aura CDT are now open until the 12th July 2023. Durham University is a partner and Scholarships are available for students to be based in Durham, as well as the other partner institutions. PhDs should focus on Offshore Wind and the Environment.

Researchers at the Durham Energy Institute have been awarded a £1.84m grant to lead a consortium of university and industry partners in developing virtual power plant technologies. The new funding is part of UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) £13 million investment to fund 13 projects to help the UK meet its Net Zero targets.

New research from some of our leading energy experts has shown that the UK sits on underground heat capable of providing sustainable, carbon-neutral heating and cooling for large areas of the nation.