Meet the Team
Simon Neill
SEEC Director and lead of ocean renewable energy work package
Simon Neill is professor of physical oceanography, specializing in ocean renewable energy: characterizing the wave and tidal energy resource, understanding wave-tide interaction, optimizing grid integration of arrays of marine renewable energy devices, and quantifying the environmental impacts of extracting energy from the oceans. He is founder and course director of an MSc in Marine Renewable Energy, and committee member of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), working on revising IEC Technical Specification 62600-201: Tidal Energy Resource Assessment and Characterization. He is a member of the editorial board of the Elsevier journal Renewable Energy, has written a textbook on marine energy "Fundamentals of Ocean Renewable Energy: Generating Electricity from the Sea", and is lead sediment scientist at FORCE (Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy).
Email: s.p.neill@bangor.ac.uk
Iestyn Pierce
Lead of nuclear energy work package
Iestyn Pierce is the Head of the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering at Bangor University. Currently his research interests include semiconductor laser dynamics and digital signal processing for control systems and high-speed optical communications. He has published over 100 journal and conference articles, and co-authored three book chapters on semiconductor laser dynamics. He is a member of the IEEE Photonics Society, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, a member of the Institute of Physics and a Chartered Physicist. He was secretary of the 2005 National Eisteddfod science committee. He chairs the Engineering Centre for North and Mid Wales, which gives hundreds of local high school students each year an opportunity to try their hand at being an engineer.
Email: i.pierce@bangor.ac.uk
Graham Ormondroyd
Lead of energy efficient structures work package
Graham Ormondroyd is the Head of Materials Research at the BioComposites Centre. His research is centred around the use of bio-based materials in all aspects of our lives, including construction. Graham has particular interests in the use of timber in construction and the benefits it brings to both the planet and to our lives. Graham is the chair of the Wood Technology Society, Trustee of IOM3 and is on the editorial board of the International Wood Products Journal. Graham also represents the UK on CEN TC 175 and is convenor of working group 1. Graham has written several book chapters on bio-based construction and edited “Designing with Natural Materials”.
Email: g.ormondroyd@bangor.ac.uk
Dave Mills
Lead of cyberinfrastructure work package
Dave Mills is Director of the integrated Data and Marine Information System (iMarDIS). His research includes development of autonomous marine observational systems, application of numerical models to understand and predict the consequences of natural and anthropogenic pressures on marine environmental status and development of environmental informatics solutions to improve the evidence base for marine environmental policy implementation. He has provided expert advice to UK Defra, ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) and the European Commission on the strategies to implement an ecosystem approach for environmental policy implementation and development of pan-European data management and observational networks.
Email: d.mills@bangor.ac.uk
Martin Austin
Lead of SEEC coastal observatory
Martin Austin is an observational oceanographer and specialise in the hydro- and morphodynamics of the inter-tidal and shallow sub-tidal regions of the coastal ocean. He has been directly involved with ten major research projects including PI on two EPSRC grants. He leads the SEACAMS2 Coastal Observatory system, providing real-time data from the marine environment. He has also undertaken consultancy for industrial and public-sector partners (CEFAS/EDF Energy, Environment Agency), and has ongoing collaborations with Nortek, Deltares, and the RNLI.
Email: m.austin@bangor.ac.uk
John Healey
Member of energy efficient structures work package team
John Healey is Professor of Forest Sciences and Director of Research for the Bangor University College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering. His research that aligns with SEEC includes life cycle assessment of sustainable forest product value chains, application of ecosystem services analysis and environmental economics to resource efficiency and climate change mitigation, and assessment of the impacts of climate change and management on system dynamics and carbon sequestration He will also contribute experience based on his research into evidence to support policy for “climate smart woodlands”, post-industrial land restoration, and systematic review of environmental evidence. He is a section chief editor of the journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change.
Email: j.healey@bangor.ac.uk
Ben Lincoln
Research Fellow in Applied Observational Oceanography
As an observational physical oceanographer, Ben Lincoln measures ocean currents & stratification, in order to understand what drives turbulence and mixing in the ocean, including physical processes, such as waves, tides, inertial oscillations and internal waves. Understanding these processes is vital for marine developments as they physically impact engineered structures in the marine environment, and drive sediment transport and ecological changes. His research also engages environmental challenges, such as measuring heat fluxes, which drive melting in the polar seas, nutrient fluxes supporting fisheries, and rates of Oceanic CO2 absorption from the atmosphere..
Email: ben.lincoln@bangor.ac.uk
David Christie
Research Fellow in Ocean Renewable Energy Modelling
David Christie is a SEEC Research Fellow in Ocean Renewable Energy Modelling. He is involved in wave and tidal resource assessment and hydrodynamical site characterisation for offshore renewable energy sites. He enjoys combining analytical, numerical and observational approaches to a diverse range of problems in physics and engineering, and looking for new ways to parametrise physical phenomena. As well as a longstanding interest in renewable energy, his varied research career has also incorporated the electrodynamics of particle accelerator beams and composite structures, and covariant approaches to fluids and fields..
Email: d.christie@bangor.ac.uk
Matt Lewis
EPSRC Fellow
Matt Lewis is a Research Fellow at Bangor University in physical oceanography, with applications to blue economy industries such as marine renewable energy. Using computer simulations of earth systems, Matt aims to relate key oceanographic processes, such as waves and tides, to marine renewable energy. For example, how biophysical processes interact and how they may change in the future under climate change scenarios? Matt holds a marine renewable energy EPSRC fellowship (METRIC), which aims to map the global resource, characterise ocean conditions, and interactions (both negative and positive interactions). Matt works with leading marine renewable energy companies (e.g. co-supervising PhD studentships on resource mapping), is a EGU conference session convenor in marine renewables, a member of the EPSRC Associate Peer Review College, and editor for three journals: MDPI Journal of Marine Science and Engineering and the Energies journal, and Frontiers in Marine Sciences. Matt is part of the advisory group for a number of research projects, including AuSTEN, Supergen-ORE and PRIMaRE..
Email: m.j.lewis@bangor.ac.uk
Morwenna Spear
Research Officer, Biocomposites
Morwenna Spear is a research scientist at the BioComposites Centre in Bangor University, specialising in timber and biobased materials. Her current research interests include modelling the interactions between wood, moisture and humidity, both in the context of buildings and at the micro scale. Past projects involve applying these concepts to kiln drying, thermal modification of timber and other wood modification systems. All range from lab scale to full commercial scale up situations. Dr Spear has over fifty published papers, including eight book chapters in scientific text books. She also enjoys communicating science to young people and adults at events such as the National Eisteddfod and the Royal Welsh Show, as well as contributing to columns in Wood Based Panels International and the Timber Trade Journal. Morwenna is a member of the board for the Wood Technology Society within the IOM3, and current Vice-Chair of the board. Through the WTS she has organised a regular national Timber conference in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Email: m.j.spear@bangor.ac.uk
Athanasios Dimitriou
Materials Scientist (Biocomposites)
Athanasios Dimitriou is a material scientist at the BioComposites Centre. He has a BSc in wood science and furniture design and technology and a PhD in wood science with a focus on surface characterisation and adhesion. His wood science expertise is in wood anatomy and wood based mechanical and chemical properties such as volatile compounds emissions and surface spectrophotometry. He also has experience in regression models analysis and chemometrics, as well as experience in material and furniture quality control testing according to European and international standards. Athanasios has experience in multiphysics modelling and development of prototype multisensor devices for monitoring environmental conditions. He has program language skills in Python, C++ and Java for developing operation software for the prototype devices. He has a wealth of experience in 2D/3D CAD architecture, technical design and industrial product design including ergonomic analysis with a focus on furniture development. Athanasios has experience and expertise in a wide range of areas which ensures a holistic approach to product development, from basic material properties to ergonomic design and in service environmental performance, in order fully fit the products purpose of use. He has particular interest in construction with timber as an approach to tackle climate change and the utilisation of home grown timber. Athanasios represents UK as a BSI expert in CEN/TC 124 WG 3.
Email: a.dimitriou@bangor.ac.uk
Max Dickens
Research Project Support Officer
Max Dickens is a SEEC research project support officer. He has an MSc in marine renewable energy and is currently a PhD student. His research focuses on prototyping and verifying smart sensor networks. In the context of smart buildings this involves development of embedded computers for building health monitoring and prediction and for the Nuclear work package this will involve the development of embedded computers for instrumentation and control of thermal hydraulic test facilities.
Email: tcu459@bangor.ac.uk
Jonathan Demmer
Research Officer in Ocean Renewable Energy
Jonathan is involved in quantifying and qualifying the environmental impact of offshore renewable energy and the possibility of co-location opportunities. Currently his research interests include: 1) the development of Lagrangian particle tracking methods suitable for various studies (e.g. pollutants, plastics and larvae dispersal); 2) the interaction between offshore renewable energy (ORE) infrastructure and larvae dispersal; and 3) creation of 3D hydrodynamic models to quantify the impact of climate change on energy extraction. He enjoys multi-disciplinary research projects by combining larvae ecology, renewable energy and climate change. As well as interest in renewable energy, his previous research career has focused on aquaculture to improve the efficiency and sustainability of this industry. Studying the synergy of two vital marine industries (ORE and aquaculture) is a major challenge for a sustainable future and reduce human impact on marine ecosystem.
Email: osp816@bangor.ac.uk
Vicky Marti
Research Project Support Officer (Ocean Renewable Energy)
Vicky Martà is a SEEC research support officer in the ocean renewable energy work package. She has an MSci in Oceanography with French and an MSc in Marine Renewable Energy. Her main interests are physical oceanography and meteorology, with particular interest in tides and waves and harnessing the power in the ocean. Her role includes, amongst others, assisting in the investigation of offshore energy resource characterisation, calibrating and validating ocean models, and assisting in planning cruises to collect data. Her research will focus on improving the understanding of mixed sediment dynamics in the context of ocean renewable energy.
Email: v.marti@bangor.ac.uk
Wenna Jones
Project Manager
Wenna Lloyd Jones is Project Manager for SEEC and is responsible for delivering the project in line with the Business Plan. She has 8 years of experience with the administration of ERDF funded projects and is the Project Manager for SEACAMS2, also based in Marine Centre Wales.