Who We Are

Professor David Rooney is the Dean of Internationalisation and Reputation within the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast. He is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Queen’s and director of the Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy.

His research focuses on energy generation, materials and system integration with a particular focus on Zero Carbon technologies. He has a H-Index of 57, over 10,000 citations and a grant portfolio of over £10m. He works with a wide range of industries and government bodies, to advance decarbonisation through specific projects, as well as supporting collaboration and cooperation through industrial clusters.

Dr Neil Harrison is based in Queen’s University Belfast and is currently the Green Innovation Challenge Fund manager in the Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy (CASE) and the operations director for the Bryden Centre, a research and doctoral training centre in renewable energy. He holds a PhD in Physics and was a principal research scientist at the National Physical Laboratory before moving into programme management and strategy.

Neil has spent over 25 years overseeing the strategic development and operational delivery of a portfolio of research programmes in biological, physical, and engineering sciences. He has been a senior advisor to UK Government and the UK’s chief scientist on topics including innovation, nanotechnology, and metrology.

Recently, Neil has been advising the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland on different aspects of decarbonisation and the Green Economy including leading and writing a number of commissioned reports. Neil has extensive experience of writing and delivering collaborative projects that bring together industry, government, and research providers to solve real-world challenges.

Ian Marshall has over 35 years’ experience working in the agri-food industry and rural business. He previously worked in the Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS) at Queens University Belfast, linking research and development with the industry across themes of food integrity, agricultural and environmental resilience, nutrition and preventative medicine, enabling technologies, and data Information.

He was elected as an Independent Senator to the upper house of the Irish government, serving in Seanad Eireann from 2018-2020.

He attended Greenmount College and later completed an MSc in Agri-Food Business Development at Ulster University and Babson College, Boston, USA. He also completed training as a Professional Member of the Institute of Agricultural Management through the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester.

As a former President of the Ulster Farmers Union, and member of the Agri-Food Strategy Board Ian has worked extensively between Belfast, London, Dublin and Brussels representing agriculture and the rural economy.

Over a long career in business and public life he has served on a significant number of organisations and public bodies.

Dr Simon Murray is an experienced project manager who has been part of the CASE team since 2017, overseeing CASE’s portfolio of research projects. He holds a Master of Engineering in Chemical with Polymer Engineering and a PhD in Chemical Engineering, both awarded by Queen’s University Belfast

Prior to joining CASE, he successfully acted as project manager for the €3.7m EU funded ATBEST Marie-Curie Initial Training Network and as a researcher on a variety of wastewater treatment and renewable energy projects.