BiophysEco is run by a small core team of public policy professionals and academics from various fields and countries. Its work is supported by an international network of contributors, i.e. senior researchers who contribute in various ways to produce and promote high-quality and balanced public policy analysis and advice. If you would like to join our team or our network of contributors please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Our core team:

François-Xavier Chevallerau – EU

François-Xavier Chevallerau is a public policy professional with close to 20 years of work experience, most of which in the field of policy and business consulting. Before founding BiophysEco, François-Xavier acquired experience with various consulting companies, including both boutique firms and large professional services firms. He most recently served as EU Government Relations Manager with LNE Group, a boutique government funding and government relations consulting firm active in Europe and the U.S. Prior to this he was a senior manager with PwC, the world’s largest professional services firm, acting as Account Driver/Manager for the EU institutions and then as Business Development Manager for the United Nations account, based in New York. Prior still François-Xavier acquired experience as an EU Affairs consultant in Brussels, as a senior consultant with one of Brussels’ leading EU communications consultancies, and as a management consultant for the UK public sector with one of Britain’s leading consulting firms. A Swiss and French citizen, François-Xavier is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (“Sciences-Po”).

Victor Court – France

Victor Court is a Teaching Assistant in economics at Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, France. He completed in this same university a PhD in economics on the role of energy for long-term economic growth. His current research agenda is to properly include the role of energy within the recent Unified Growth Theory. Victor holds a MSc in Economics of Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development, from the French Institute of Petroleum (IFP) and an Engineering Master’s degree in Agronomy and Environmental Sciences from AgroParisTech, the French leading engineering school for environmental and life sciences. He has authored/co-authored several peer-reviewed scientific papers focusing in particular on the linkage between the EROI dynamics of energy systems and economic growth.

Ajay Gupta – Canada

Ajay K. Gupta is an energy systems research and evaluation professional and a teacher of energy systems and systems ecology. Ajay has experience in leading research and creating experiments for the evaluation of various energy systems and economies across dynamic boundaries in a business environment. In 2014 he founded EROI Energy Advisors Inc., conducting research and analysis in the field of energy technologies and their impacts on economies and society. His projects have included feasibility and design studies for energy systems in the U.S. as well as energy assessment work in the Caribbean region. Ajay holds a BSc in Natural Resources Management from Cornell University and a MSc in Environmental Science from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). He was Teaching Assistant at SUNY ESF from 2008 to 2011, and then Research Assistant to Professor Charles A.S. Hall from 2011 to 2014. He has authored/co-authored peer-reviewed scientific papers on energy systems evaluation for publication in various scientific journals. He is currently applying for a PhD at York University in Toronto, Canada.

Dénes Csala – UK

Dénes Csala is assistant professor in Energy Storage Systems Dynamics at the University of Lancaster. His research interests include system dynamics, energy transitions, energy storage, complex systems, multi-agent systems and data visualization. Dénes’ previous work revolved around data science and system dynamics simulation modeling to study problems of sustainable energy transitions and biophysical economics, where he developed global and national climate-compliant decarbonization paths. He has participated in, organized and led educational workshops on sustainability and renewable energy across developing regions in Asia and Africa. Hungarian by origin, Dénes was born and raised in Transylvania, Romania and obtained a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (2011). Later on, he moved to Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi to pursue an MSc in Engineering Systems & Management (2013) and continued for a PhD in Interdisciplinary Engineering (2016), both in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2014 he was a visting researcher at the Center for Collective Intelligence of MIT Sloan School of Management, working on the Climate CoLab project.

Claire Copeland – UK

Claire Copeland is a PhD researcher at the Science & Technology Research Unit (SPRU) of the University of Sussex, UK. Her research investigates the evolution of global net energy over time from the range of energy supply technologies using a system dynamics modelling approach. Claire Copeland is a member of the Sussex Energy Group, an inter-disciplinary research group focusing on the technological, economic and political dimensions of sustainable energy, which engages with policy-makers and practitioner. She is affiliated to the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research of the University of East Anglia. After many years in the actuarial profession under various guises as consultant, project manager, account manager and software trainer Claire was awarded a distinction in 2008 for the MSc in Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey where she majored in life cycle assessment. Claire has since applied life cycle assessment to a wide variety of products and systems including; a number of retail products, packaging, bed frame and also comparing produce grown on an allotment with commercially grown. Claire has tutored MSc students applying life cycle assessment in dissertations and has also been a visiting lecturer on life cycle assessment.

Our contributors (in alphabetical order):

Paul Brockway – UK

Dr Paul Brockway is a Research Fellow at the School of Earth and Environment of the University of Leeds. His research is focused on studying macroeconomic energy-economy interactions, through primarily the lens of exergy analysis. Exergy is considered as ‘available energy’, and enables the study of the energy conversion chain from primary to final to useful stages – where it is lost in exchange for energy services. His background is as a structural engineer, before moving to work in corporate sustainability, especially using a consumption-based approach to carbon accounting. In 2006-2009 he undertook a 3 year distance learning MSc in climate change and sustainability, and in 2012 he left his consulting work to undertake a full-time PhD in ecological economics, which he completed in 2016.

Michael Carbajales Dale – USA

Dr Michael Carbajales Dale is Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at Clemson University  in South Carolina, where he heads the Energy-Environmental-Economic (E³) Systems Analysis Group. The group’s research focuses on building tools to reduce the environmental impacts of energy systems. Before joining Clemson in August 2014, Michael was an Energy Systems Analyst with Stanford’s Environmental Assessment & Optimization Group and with the Global Climate & Energy Project (GCEP). His research focuses on the long-term, large-scale evolution and dynamics of the energy-economy system, especially how development of energy resources affects social development and the effects of a future transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Michael holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Advanced Energy and Material Systems (AEMS) Laboratory at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. His doctoral thesis was Global Energy Modelling – A Biophysical Approach (GEMBA), which combined net energy analysis with systems dynamic modelling to study the interaction of the global economy with the energy sector.

Jing Chen  – Canada

Dr Jing Chen is Assistant Professor in Finance at the University of Northern British Columbia. In addition to teaching in the School of Business on investments, corporate finance and resource management, Jing Chen is focused on research around the physical foundation of economics and social sciences. He first presented his ‘analytical thermodynamic theory’, challenging current economic thinking, in July 2000. After updating his theory in April 2002 his work culminated into his frequently reviewed and cited book, ‘The Physical Foundation of Economics: An Analytical Thermodynamic Theory‘, published in 2005. Dr. Chen continues to refine his ‘analytical thermodynamic theory’ and applies it to different fields, mainly in the area of finance. In 2016 he published his latest book ‘The Unity of Science and Economics: A New Foundation of Economic Theory‘, which presents a new economic theory linking basic biophysical principles to decision making by individuals and institutions. Jing Chen holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, a M.S. from the Institute of System Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a B.S. from Fudan University, Shanghai.

François Diaz Maurin – Spain

Dr François Diaz Maurin is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain. Trained as a nuclear engineer, he has acquired expertise in large-scale infrastructure projects in the French and the US nuclear industries. He joined the Integrated Assessment (IASTE) research group of the UAB’s Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) in 2010, where he works with Prof. Mario Giampietro on energy supply issues and the integrated assessment of energy systems. François completed his PhD thesis on assessing the viability and desirability of nuclear power with a newly developed protocol to compare the quality of different alternative energy sources. François Diaz-Maurin is a Member of the Editorial Board of Frontiers in Energy Systems and Policy as Review Editor, a Member of the Executive Board of the Liphe4 Scientific Association, and a Member of the Emerging Leaders in Environmental and Energy Policy Network (ELEEP), a membership-only forum co-organised by the Atlantic Council and the Ecologic Institute.

Florian Fizaine – France

Dr Florian Fizaine is research assistant in economics at the University of Burgundy. His PhD thesis focused on the multiple issues related to the availability of metals for the realization of the energy transition and the development of a low-carbon energy system. His postdoctoral work aims at providing useful insights about various issues related to energy, natural resources and the environment. He has authored or co-authored several peer-reviewed scientific papers on energy systems, focusing in particular on the linkage between renewable energy deployment and metal depletion or between energy use and economic growth. His first book, dedicated to rare earth metals and their impact on the energy transition, was published in 2015.

Blair Fix – Canada

Blair Fix is a PhD student at the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada. His PhD work focuses on the development of a biophysical economic growth theory. He holds a Masters of Environmental Studies from York University and a Bachelor in Mathematics/Physics from the University of Toronto, as well as a Bachelor of Music from the University of North Texas. He has authored several peer-reviewed scientific papers, the latest of which explores the relation that exists between the size of institutions in society and energy consumption per capita. His first book, ‘Rethinking Economic Growth Theory From a Biophysical Perspective‘, was published in 2015.

Carey King – USA

Dr Carey W. King is Research Scientist at The University of Texas at Austin and Assistant Director at the Energy Institute. He also has appointments with the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy within the Jackson School of Geosciences and the McCombs School of Business. He has both a B.S. with high honors and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He performs interdisciplinary research related to how energy systems interact with the economy and environment as well as how our policy and social systems can make decisions and tradeoffs among these often competing factors. The past performance of our energy systems is no guarantee of future returns, yet we must understand the development of past energy systems. Carey’s research goals center on rigorous interpretations of the past to determine the most probable future energy pathways. He has published technical articles in the academic journals Environmental Science and Technology, Environmental Research Letters, Nature Geoscience, Energy Policy, Sustainability, and Ecology and Society. He has also written commentary for American Scientist and Earth magazines discussing energy, water, food, and economic interactions.

David Murphy – USA

Dr David J. Murphy is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at St. Lawrence University. Prior to this he held a joint position as a faculty member at Northern Illinois University and a research associate with Argonne National Laboratory. His research focus is on the intersection of energy, the environment, and economics. David Murphy holds a Ph.D. from State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). He has authored/co-authored numerous peer-reviewed scientific papers on energy systems and net energy analysis, including ‘A Preliminary Protocol for Determining the EROI of Fuels‘ in 2011. The main objective of this protocol is to provide a formal methodology, structure, and nomenclature for EROI analysis that is both consistent, so that all EROI numbers across various processes can be compared, and also flexible, so that changes or additions to the universal formula can focus analyses on specific areas of concern.

Jesus Ramos Martin – Ecuador

Dr Jesus Ramos-Martin is rector at Amazon Regional University IKIAM in Ecuador. Previously, he was researcher at Universidad Nacional de Educación (UNAE), and at Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), also in Ecuador. He has also worked as Dean and researcher of the Centro de Prospectiva Estratégica (CEPROEC) at the Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales (IAEN), still in Ecuador. He has also served as Assistant Professor at the Unit of Economic History, Department of Economics and Economic History of the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, and also worked with the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the same university. His research focuses on biophysical prospective planning, societal metabolism, with emphasis on household metabolism, mainly for energy consumption. He holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences (Ecological Economics), a Master in Environmental Management and a Degree in Development Economics by Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona. He previously obtained a Master in Environmental Politics and a Master in Ecological Economics at Keele University, UK, where he was researching on complex systems, self-organisation, and thermodynamics applied to the analysis of energy metabolism of societies.

Marco Raugei – UK

Dr Marco Raugei is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (Faculty of Technology, Design and the Environment), Oxford Brookes University (UK). Dr. Raugei is also a Visiting Scientist at the Center for Life Cycle Analysis, Columbia University, New York (USA). He is also technical representative in the International Energy Agency PVPS Task 12 – Life Cycle Analysis Component and member of the Global Warming task force of the UNEP – SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. Dr. Raugei’s research activity towards the integration and further development of complementary methods for environmental sustainability assessment within a common life cycle thinking framework is documented in 40 scientific papers in peer-reviewed international journals, as well as over 80 scientific documents published in conference proceedings, reports, scientific books and encyclopaedias. Dr. Raugei is Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), and member of the board of tutors of the International PhD Programme ‘Environment, Resources, and Sustainable Development’ at the Parthenope University of Naples (Italy). Dr. Raugei is also a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management (L&H Scientific Publishing), and of BioPhysical Economics and Resource Quality (Springer).

Sgouris Sgouridis – UAE

Dr. Sgouris Sgouridis is an Associate Professor at Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. His current research interests focus on socio-technical systems modeling including sustainable transportation systems and sustainable energy systems management. Dr. Sgouridis is Principal Investigator researching ‘Commercial Aviation in a Carbon-Constrained Future’ at Masdar Institute and he is co-leading the development of the Sustainable Bioresource Projects. Prior to his role at Masdar Institute, Dr. Sgouridis worked in governmental and private organizations including the US Department of Transportation, the Port Authority of Thessaloniki and the Hellenic Army. He holds a PhD in Engineering Systems from MIT (2007), an MS in Technology and Policy from MIT (2005), and an MS in Transportation from MIT (2005). Dr. Sgouridis received the Martin Fellowship for Sustainability (2004-2005) and an award for Excellence in Academic Performance from the Chambers of Engineers (1998 and 1999).