James Skea

Professor James Ferguson Skea CBE FRSA (born 1 September 1953), also known as Jim Skea, is a Scottish academic, Professor of Sustainable Energy at Imperial College London's Centre for Environmental Policy, and a member of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the British government's Committee on Climate Change.

Life

The son of Colin Hill Skea and Margaret Ferguson Skea, he was educated at the Grove Academy, Broughty Ferry, then at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated BSc with first class Honours, and finally at Clare College, Cambridge, where he gained his PhD in 1979.^[1]

In 1978 Skea became a research assistant in the Cavendish Laboratory, where he remained until 1981, then went to Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as a research associate, 1981–1983, a research Fellow, 1983–1994, and a Professorial Fellow, 1994–1998 (Science Policy Research Unit). He was Director of the Global Environmental Change Programme of the Economic and Social Research Council from 1995 to 1998, then was at the Policy Studies Institute from 1998 to 2004, and at the UK Energy Research Centre, 2004–2012. He has held an appointment as Professor of Sustainable Energy at the Centre for Environmental Policy in London since 2009, and since 2012 has been a Fellow of the Research Councils UK Energy Programme, Imperial College London.^[1][2]

Skea has also served as a non-executive director of Blackrock New Energy Investment Trust Plc since 2009 and has been a Member of the Committee on Climate Change and of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 2008.^[1] He is also Vice-President of the Energy Institute and sits on the Advisory Board of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie-Mellon University.^[2]

Private life

In 1976, Skea married Jane Howley, and they had one son and one daughter. His marriage ended in divorce in 2001 and he is now the partner of Hilary Ann Ougham and lives in Brighton. In Who's Who he states his recreations as "walking the South Downs, mountain biking, losing keys".^[1]

Selected publications

• Acid Politics, 1991
• Standards, Innovation, Competitiveness and Policy, 1995
• Clean and Competitive, 1997
• Pollution for Sale, 1998
• Energy 2050, 2011

Honours

• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, 2000
• Officer of the Order of the British Empire, 2004^[1]
• Fellow of the Energy Institute, 2005
• Certificate of Commendation, Japan, 2009, for work as Co-Chair of Japan-UK Joint Research Project "Roadmap to a Low-Carbon World"^[3]
• Honorary Fellow of the Society of Engineers, 2011
• Melchett Award of the Energy Institute, 2010^[4]
• Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 2013^[1]

Notes