People
We are a group of researchers who are passionate about energy and environmental issues, and are dedicated to using our problem solving skills to make a positive contribution to global sustainability.
Dr Edward Barbour, group lead
Dr Barbour joined Loughborough University in January 2019, as part of the Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering and the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST). An early career academic, he is excited to lead the Energy Systems and Energy Storage lab (ESESlab) at Loughborough. The ESESlab is an interdisciplinary group that develops multi-scale, data-driven energy models to identify least-cost methods of decarbonising energy systems and researches novel thermomechanical energy storage technologies (with a particular focus on compressed air energy storage systems).
Dr Barbour has previously worked as a postdoc in the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as a member of Prof Marta Gonzalez's systems group, and the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage at the University of Birmingham. Originally trained as a physicist at Hertford College, Oxford, he did his PhD at the University of Edinburgh's Institute for Energy Systems. He has published papers in several leading international energy journals, including Applied Energy, Nature Communications, Energy & Environmental Science and Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. In his spare time he enjoys rockclimbing and cycling.
Maury Martins-de-Oliviera-Jr, Postdoc
Maury is a mechanical engineer graduated from Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, where he also obtained his master’s degree in late 2019. In August 2022, Maury joined Dr. Barbour’s team at Loughborough University as a postdoc, leading research on the GasNetNew project. He then moved with the group to University of Birmingham in 2023 to continue this role, where he leads work on pipeline compressed air energy storage and thermal energy storage for domestic space heating.
David Walker PhD student
David is a mechanical engineer graduated from Durham University, UK, where he completed an undergraduate masters degree in 2020. He then joined SSE where he worked as an engineer. In 2025 he joined the group as a PhD student and is currently undertaking a research project on novel smsll-scale compressed air energy storage systems using low-cost reversible piston compressors.