AbuBakr Bahaj

Professor AbuBakr S Bahaj is a leader in academia on issues related to energy and climate change, and has managed and conducted substantial relevant research. He is Professor of Sustainable Energy and head of the Energy and Climate Change Division in the School of Civil Engineering and the Environment at the University of Southampton.

After completing his PhD, Professor Bahaj was employed by the University of Southampton, progressing from a researcher to a Personnel Chair of Sustainable Energy. Over the last 20 years, Professor Bahaj has established the energy theme within the University and directed his Sustainable Energy Research Group, which is now considered to be one of the UK’s leading university-based research groups in renewable energy and energy in buildings. He initiated and managed research in ocean energy conversion (resources, technologies and impacts), photovoltaics, energy in buildings and impacts of climate change on the built environment in the University. This work has resulted in over 230 articles published in academic refereed journals and conference series of international standing. 

Professor Bahaj is the head of the Energy and Climate Change Division (ECC) within the highly rated School of Civil Engineering and the Environment (2nd in the UK, RAE in 2008, with 80% of research judged to be either “World Leading” or “Internationally Excellent”). The aims of the Division and SERG are to promote and execute fundamental and applied research and pre-industrial development in the areas of energy resources, technologies, energy efficiency and the impact of climate change.

Professor Bahaj is an experienced research team director and has many internationally-focused research projects including collaborative projects in China, the Middle East and Africa. He is also the coordinator of the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Eco-region research networks that aim to develop research themes and projects to study eco-city development encompassing resource assessment, technology pathways for the production and conservation of energy, planning, and social and economic studies required in establishing eco-regions in China and elsewhere. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of Renewable Energy, the UK's Institute of Civil Engineering journal Energy, and a member of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Supervisory Board. From 2001 to 2007 he was a member of the Department of Business and Regulatory Reform (BERR), (now Department for Business Innovations and Skills, BIS), Technology Programmes Panels on Water (including ocean energy) and Solar Energy.