Professor John Loughhead CB OBE FREng FTSE FIMechE FIET has extensive international experience in industry, academia and government.
John has recently been appointed Chair of the Mission Innovation Steering Committee. Mission Innovation is the primary intergovernmental forum to progress clean energy innovation and was launched at COP21 in Paris. He is also the Chief Scientific Adviser for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and is the most experienced technical expert in BEIS. As a Director General, he can be called upon for independent, impartial assurance on scientific rigour. His professional career has been predominantly in industrial research and development for the electronics and electrical power industries. His industrial experience includes advanced, high power gas turbines; new energy conversion systems; spacecraft thermal management; electrical and materials development for electricity generation and transmission equipment; and electronic control systems. John is a Chartered Engineer, graduating in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, London, where he also spent five years in computational fluid dynamics research. Previously the Past-President of the UK’s Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), Fellow of both the UK and Australian national Academies of Engineering, Honorary Professor of Cardiff University and Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary University of London.