The 2026 conference will be hosted by the University of Cambridge, and co-chaired by Jonathan Cullen and André Serrenho (University of Cambridge) and Rick Lupton (University of Bath)
Dr André Cabrera Serrenho
Dr André Cabrera Serrenho is an Associate Professor at the Department of Engineering of the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom). He is exploring new ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions at a faster pace to meet international climate pledges. This involves identifying new configurations of energy and material systems to supply our future needs with less demand and emissions.
André has been working on the identification of feasible opportunities to deliver our future needs for transport and buildings without emissions. He has recently developed dynamic material flow analyses to anticipate the future demand, use and disposal of cars, buildings, plastics and steel in the UK, and fertilisers globally. These models quantify the trade-offs and emissions reduction potential of alternative interventions over time.
Prof. Jonathan Cullen
Jonathan Cullen is a Professor of Sustainable Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He leads the Resource Efficiency Collective and has a reputation for top-down studies of resource systems, bringing skills in developing new metrics to reflect both energy and material consequences of materials production.
Jonathan’s research interests span energy and material systems, efficiency limits, circularity and zero carbon transition pathways. He led the project C-THRU: carbon clarity in the global petrochemical supply chain (c-thru.org) and has been a co-investigator on: CCG: Climate Compatible Growth (climatecompatiblegrowth.com), TransFIRe (transfire-hub.org), S2uPPlant, and UK FIRES (ukfires.org). He was a Lead Author for the IPCC AR6 Industry Chapter and co-authored the book Sustainable Materials: with both eyes open, which pioneered the concept of material efficiency for energy-intensive industries.
Dr Rick Lupton
Dr Rick Upton is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath. His group’s research aims to understand how materials, products and systems drive environmental impacts, and how to understand and reduce the uncertainty that is inevitable in doing this type of analysis – through developing and applying Industrial Ecology modelling methods such as Material flow Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment, and creating open-source tools for data visualisation and modelling. Recent projects have studied key materials including steel, cement, timber, chemicals and plastics, as well as applications in the transport and buildings sectors. Rick joined the University of Bath in 2019, having previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, completing his PhD on frequency-domain modelling of floating offshore wind turbines, and working as a wind turbine design consultant.
Laura Prestwich
Laura (conference administrator) coordinates the Resource Efficiency Collective research group in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. She has organised research events and workshops internationally and enjoys communicating climate-related research and activities to a wider audience. She is particularly interested in fostering good relationships and a collaborative dynamic within her research group. Laura previously studied Modern Languages at Cambridge University, specialising in German and Spanish.
Kirsten Saward
Kirsten (conference administrator) works as Project Manager for the Use Less Research Group in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. She has previously managed a large international conference of 600+ delegates and a world record-breaking outreach project involving designs from 2000 primary school pupils in the UK. She is currently responsible for the administration of research projects which includes monitoring budgets and spend. Before joining the Use Less Group, Kirsten worked as administration manager in the communications department of a large international shipping company, as office manager for an economics consultancy and as a PA to the managing director of a Cambridge research and development company.