Gain insight into an extensive range of industry leading expertise and capabilities that will explore some of the major challenges and solutions needed to support the transition to a clean energy future.
Grant King, President of the Business Council of Australia, will appear in conversation with Australia’s leading experts in solar PV, grid-scale batteries, hydrogen, and electric vehicles and machines.
Our experts include:
Through a panel discussion and Q&A session our experts will provide insight into future thinking and practice in key areas where swift action is required including decarbonising the grid with renewables, energy storage, electrifying industries and transport, clean fuels and energy policy, markets and consumers.
This is a great opportunity to connect with a selection of UNSW’s leading academics and discuss research capability, professional education, institutional strengthening and innovative solutions across the energy sector.
Grant King was elected President of the Business Council of Australia in November 2016. He was a member of the Business Council Board from November 2011 until November 2015 and chaired the Business Council’s Infrastructure and Sustainable Growth Committee from 2010 to 2015. Grant has extensive experience in the Australian energy industry. He was Managing Director of Origin Energy Limited from February 2000 until November 2016. He was formerly General Manager, AGL Gas Companies where he held a number of management positions over a 17 year period.
In addition to his role at the Business Council, he is the Chairman of Melanoma Institute of Australia, a Director of Great Barrier Reef Foundation, a member of UNSW and runs his own advisory business, GK Advisory Pty Ltd. He is former Director of Envestra Limited and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association Limited (APPEA). He is former Chairman of Energy Supply Association of Australia (esaa), Oil Company of Australia and Contact Energy Limited.
UNSW Scientia Professor Martin Green, dubbed Australia’s ‘father of PV’, is the Director of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, involving several other Australian Universities and research groups. His group's contributions to photovoltaics are well known and include holding the record for silicon solar cell efficiency for 30 of the last 34 years, described as one of the “Top Ten” Milestones in the history of solar photovoltaics.
Major international awards include the 1999 Australia Prize, the 2002 Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, the 2007 SolarWorld Einstein Award, the 2016 Ian Wark Medal from the Australian Academy of Science and the prestigious Global Energy Prize in 2017.
Professor Maria Skyllas-Kazacos was one of Australia's first female professors in chemical engineering and the pioneer of the Vanadium Redox Battery which was developed at the University of New South Wales during the late 1980s and 1990s and is now being commercialised around the world in a wide range of energy storage applications. Maria has a great passion for her research work, and has always felt a strong commitment to the environment.
In 1999 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia "for service to science and technology, particularly in the development of the vanadium redox battery as an alternative power source". In addition to being made Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2014, Professor Skyllas-Kazacos has also received numerous other accolades for her contribution to Chemical Engineering including the Whiffen (1997) and CHEMECA (1998) Medals, Institution of Chemical Engineers; R.K. Murphy Medal (2000), Royal Australian Chemical Institute; Castner Medal (2011), Society for the Chemical Industry, UK.
Professor Rose Amal is a UNSW Scientia Professor and an ARC Laureate Fellow. Prof. Rose Amal is a chemical engineer and the leader of the Particles and Catalysis Research Group. Previously she was also the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials (2010-2013). Her current research focuses on designing nanomaterials for solar and chemical energy conversion applications (including photocatalysis for water and air purification, water splitting, development of indoor self-cleaning materials, low temperature catalytic reactions) and engineering systems for solar induced processes, using the sun’s energy as a clean fuel source.
Professor Rose Amal has received numerous prestigious awards including: being listed in the Australia's Top 100 Most Influential Engineers (2012-2015), the ExxonMobil Award (2012), the Judy Raper Women in Engineering Leadership Award (2012), the NSW Science and Engineering Award - Emerging Research (2011), and the Freehills Award (2008). She is a Fellow of Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE), a Fellow of Australian Academy of Science (FAA), Fellow of IChemE, and Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia. She received the nation’s top civilian honour in 2018 – the Companion of the Order of Australia – for her eminent service to chemical engineering.
Professor Fletcher's research is in the area of power electronics, machines drives, renewable energy and electric vehicle, traction and propulsion. These areas pull together a range of engineering disciplines including electrical and electronic engineering. Professor Fletcher's industrial contributions include aerospace, automotive and renewables engineering. He has worked closely with the defence industry on Silicon Carbide device technologies, radar drives on aircraft, and various power electronic converters for actuation systems.
He currently manages 5 large projects including Micro-grids (inverter control techniques), maintaining stability of the grid with high-penetrations of PV, safety-critical machine drives, the use of power electronics in water treatment systems, and a recently announced grant of energy from waste heat.
Professor Fletcher has been awarded or contributed to competitive research grants in excess of AU$20M. He has 6 patents awarded in the area of drive systems and power electronic control, 100+ published works in journals with similar numbers in conferences and two book chapters. John is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
