Getting materials manufactured – why politics and policy matter!
Professor Laura Cohen Online Inaugural Lecture
We live in challenging times from a political and environmental perspective. There is a real urgency to develop new materials and novel processes to make them. There are plenty of regulatory and policy challenges affecting manufacturing industry in the UK. This lecture will highlight some of them and the transferable skills that materials scientists and engineers can bring to solve them. These include some themes around energy efficiency, the net zero carbon target, resource efficiency and productivity, and responding to COVID-19.
Some broader political challenges for manufacturing industry will be discussed too including trade policy, Brexit, how industry can continue and might change during and after COVID-19 and the surprising insights that a scientific and engineering background can bring. Particular examples will be used from the ceramic industry. By exposing academics and students to these challenges in industry, policy and regulation, the aim is to illustrate the importance of multidisciplinary working and also just how transferable engineering and science skills are to solving broader societal problems.
Speaker
Professor Laura Cohen
Role: Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor
Organisation: British Ceramic Confederation
Biography: Laura Cohen is Chief Executive of the British Ceramic Confederation, the trade association for the UK ceramic manufacturing industry. She joined BCC in 2008 after a degree and PhD in Materials Science at Cambridge University and 20 years in the Chemical and Pharmaceutical industry in a variety of technical and regulatory roles.
Travel and Contact Information
