The Texas A&M Energy Institute will host Professor Dame Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, for a special seminar from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CDT (UTC -5:00) on Monday, October 24, 2022, in the Frederick E. Giesecke Engineering Research Building (GERB) Third Floor Conference Room and through a Zoom Meeting. The topic will be “Climate Change, Net Zero, and Air Quality.”
Baroness Brown is a crossbench member of the House of Lords. She is also a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change, chairing its Adaptation Committee, Chair of The Carbon Trust, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University.
Abstract
Air pollution is estimated to be responsible for around seven million premature deaths globally every year. The energy transition and the drive to achieve Net Zero emissions brings many co-benefits, and improved air quality can be one of them. However, it is critical that governments take a coordinated policy response to the related issues of climate change and air pollution. The presentation looks at the UK’s approach to achieving its Net Zero target, and the potential win-win policy approaches for air quality.
Biography
Dame Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, is a crossbench member of the House of Lords. She is also a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change, chairing its Adaptation Committee, Chair of The Carbon Trust, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University.
King is best known for her work in science, technology, and policy to support low-carbon and new negative-emissions science. She advocates for low-carbon science and evidence-based methods to achieve significant emissions reductions. She authored The King Review of Low-Carbon Cars, a report initiated by the British government to evaluate vehicular and fuel-related technology to reduce carbon emissions.
After 16 years as an academic researcher and University lecturer in materials at Cambridge and Nottingham Universities, Baroness Brown joined Rolls-Royce Plc in 1994, where she held several senior positions including Head of Materials, Managing Director of the Fan Systems business and Engineering Director of the Marine business. In 2002 she became CEO of the Institute of Physics, and in 2004 was appointed Principal of the Engineering Faculty at Imperial College London.
Baroness Brown was Vice-Chancellor of Aston University from 2006 to 2016. Under her leadership, Aston cemented its position as one of the UK’s leading universities for business and the professions.
Her academic research includes over 160 papers on fatigue and fracture in structural materials and developments in aerospace and marine propulsion.
Baroness Brown is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society. She was awarded a CBE for services to materials engineering and a DBE for services to education and technology. In 2015 she was elevated to the Peerage as a crossbench member of the House of Lords.