Transforming our future: Aviation
Also in “ Transforming our future�
On Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 February 2027, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ will hold a conference on the future of aviation.
The two-day conference offers an opportunity to examine the innovations, challenges and opportunities shaping the future of aviation. Talks and panel sessions will consider what a sustainable transformation of aviation should achieve, the transition to new fuels and technologies, the infrastructure needed to make these innovations a reality, and the UK’s role in shaping the future of aviation. It will bring together speakers and delegates from across industry, academia, government and the wider aviation community.
Transforming our future conferences
This conference forms part of Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ's industry focused Transforming our future series. These unique meetings showcase cutting-edge science and bring together experts to explore and address key scientific and technical challenges of the coming decade.
Attending the event
Attendance is by invitation only. Please email industry@royalsociety.org to enquire.
Please note that Transforming our future conferences hosted by Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ do not necessarily represent a Royal Society position or signify an endorsement of the speakers or content presented.
This conference is supported by Rolls-Royce.
Image credit: © iStock.com / Fahroni
Organisers
Schedule
Chair
Professor Hervé Morvan
Rolls-Royce
Professor Hervé Morvan
Rolls-Royce
Professor Hervé Morvan leads the company advanced concepts team at Rolls-Royce, working for the Group Engineering, Technology & Safety (ETS) directorate and reporting to the Group Director for R&T, on issues in the ‘beyond business as usual’ and specifically on future energy and future power (from a technical and from an economic/market perspective). He also feeds into activities led by the Group Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Transformation Officer, on topics pertaining to the future such as energy transition, long-term planning and future markets. Hervé led the inception of the Rolls-Royce hydrogen strategy and programme until its formal standing up as a demonstration programme. Prior to joining Rolls-Royce, Hervé spent 15 years at the University of Nottingham where he led the Institute for Aerospace Technology (IAT), receiving a personal chair in 2014 and being elected a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) back in 2016
Chair
Regius Professor Graham Hutchings CBE FREng FRS
Cardiff University
Regius Professor Graham Hutchings CBE FREng FRS
Cardiff University
Graham Hutchings is Regius Professor of Chemistry at Cardiff University. He studied chemistry at University College London. His early career was with ICI and AECI Ltd where he became interested in gold catalysis. In 1984 he moved to academia and has held chairs at the Universities of Witwatersrand, Liverpool and Cardiff. He was elected a Fellow of Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ in 2009, a Member of Academia Europaea in 2010, a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales in 2010, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2023 and an Honorary Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society in 2023. He was awarded the Davy Medal of Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ in 2013, the ENI Award for Advanced Environmental Solutions in 2017, a CBE in 2018 and the Michel Boudart Award in 2021. He chaired the working group for Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ Policy Briefing on Net zero aviation fuels: resource requirements and environmental impacts.
Chair
Professor Carol Eastwick
University of Nottingham
Professor Carol Eastwick
University of Nottingham
Carol is a mechanical engineer specialising in multiphase thermofluids, using computational, analytical and experimental approaches to address challenges in energy and transport. The aim of her research is to reduce the impact of these systems on the environment by reducing emissions, improving performance and enabling the adoption of new sustainable technologies. She has worked on many key challenges including thermal power plant, electrification thermal management, solid state storage of hydrogen, gas turbine oil systems and aircraft fuel systems, using fundamental engineering science, combined with design, to deliver tools to industry to facilitate change.
Chair
Professor Nigel Brandon OBE FREng FRS
Imperial College London
Professor Nigel Brandon OBE FREng FRS
Imperial College London
Nigel Brandon is an electrochemical engineer who has spent his career working on the science, engineering and technology of electrochemical devices for the low carbon energy transition, in particular fuel cells, flow batteries and electrolysers. He holds an engineering degree and PhD from Imperial College London, to which he returned as an academic in 1998 following a 14 year research career with BP and Rolls-Royce, and where he now holds the Chair in Sustainable Development in Energy. He is a founder of Ceres Power, a UK company developing fuel cell and electrolyser technology based around a unique metal-supported solid oxide cell technology, and a founder of RFC Power, a UK company developing a novel liquid-gas flow battery to store renewable power. He was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal in 2007 for his contribution to fuel cell engineering, and made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008. He was awarded an OBE in 2011 for his services to UK-China science in the field of energy and climate change.