David MacKay

This article is part of the Nuclear Spin project of Spinwatch.

David MacKay was appointed as Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on 1st October 2009.

Background

From his biography on DECC website:

David MacKay studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College, then went to Caltech to complete a PhD in Computation and Neural Systems. In 1992 he returned to Cambridge as a Royal Society research fellow at Darwin College. In 1995 he became a university lecturer in the Department of Physics, where he was promoted in 1999 to a Readership and in 2003 to a Professorship in Natural Philosophy. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 2009.

In 2013 David Mackay was appointed Regius Professor in Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Regius Professorships are Royal academic titles, created by the monarch. The Engineering role is a new Regius Professorship, announced in 2011 to celebrate the Duke of Edinburgh’s 34 years as Chancellor of the University.

David is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Sustainable Energy – without the hot air, which aims to help people understand the numbers around sustainable energy.

Pro-nuclear activities and views

DECC’s MacKay said that in a high nuclear scenario with 75 gigawatts of nuclear capacity, nuclear could provide up to 86 percent of the UK’s electricity, providing 525 terawatt hours (tWh) per year out of a total of 610 tWh, a level he noted is “comparable to France.” Nuclear today provides about 18 percent of the UK’s electricity.

Fracking study

In September 2013 MacKay co-authored a study that examined the available evidence on potential greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from shale gas production and use in the UK, and discussed the compatibility of shale gas production and use with UK and global climate change targets.

Affiliations

• Ad Hoc Nuclear Research and Development Advisory Board

Contact, Resources and Notes

Contact

Website: https://www.gov.uk/government/people/david-mackay