Prof. John Paterson - Professor of Law
Legal Considerations
Professor Paterson trained as a solicitor in the Office of the Solicitor to the Secretary of State for Scotland before pursuing an academic career. After studying at the EUI, Italy, he was a Research Assistant at the Centre de Philosophie du Droit, Belgium, where he worked principally on the Governance Project with the Forward Studies Unit of the European Commission. He was Senior Lecturer and then Reader at the University of Westminster when he joined the University of Aberdeen as a Reader before becoming appointed Professor of Law in August 2011. He has previously been co-director of the Centre for Energy Law, Acting Head of the School of Law and University Vice-Principal for Internationalisation. He co-ordinates Aberdeen's involvement in the North Sea Energy Law Programme. His research has covered systems theory, the regulation of risk, governance in the EU, corporate governance and energy law.
Prof. Astley Hastings - Research Fellow
Environmental Consideration
Professor Astley Hastings is a chartered mechanical engineer and environmental scientist with extensive experience of the Oil and Gas exploration and production industry, having worked for Schlumberger for 33 years engaged in well logging, completions, testing well construction and abandonment, seismic operations and reservoir characterization. Since 2004 he has been conducting research into the environmental impact or anthropogenic activities on the atmosphere, marine and terrestrial environment has published over 89 peer reviewed papers with an H index of 26 with over 2,800, citations.
Prof. Alex Kemp - Professor of Petroleum Economics
Economic Considerations
Alexander G. Kemp is a Professor of Petroleum Economics and Director of Aberdeen Centre for Research in Energy Economics and Finance (ACREEF) at the University of Aberdeen. For many years he has specialised in his research in petroleum economics with special reference to licensing and taxation issues and has published over 200 papers and books in this field including several papers on the economics of decommissioning.
Prof. Richard Neilson - Director of the National Decommissioning Centre
Requirements for decommissioning an asset offshore
Prof. Neilson joined the University of Aberdeen in 1988 as a Lecturer in Engineering before becoming a reader, senior lecturer and professor. He's taught manufacturing, design and dynamics at undergraduate level since 1988. Most recently teaching mechanical engineering design at Level 3 and supervised group design projects on the decommissioning of pipelines at Level 5. Richard co-developed the world's first MSc in Decommissioning, and is now directly involved in the development and delivery of the Process Shutdown, Structural Decommissioning and Disposal course and was responsible solely for the development and supervision of the Group project in Comparative Assessment. His research has been focussed recently on subsea topics and decommissioning. He has run two JIPs with industry on underwater cutting for decommissioning and recently completed a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with a local company on underwater lifting for installation and decommissioning.
Dr Alfonso Martinez-Felipe - Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering
Cost Planning. Onshore dismantling of decommissioned assets
Dr Martinez-Felipe has led and participated in several research projects in the chemical engineering area, contribution as WP leader at the Data For Net Zero (D4NZ) project. He has published more than 55 peer-reviewed papers with around 1850 citations and an h-index of 26. His work stems on the design, synthesis, and characterisation of new organic materials with tuneable nanostructures that can improve the efficiency of energy harvesting, conversion, and storage devices. Alfonso coordinator for the MSc programmes in Decommissioning and Energy Transition Systems & Technologies that organise invited talks and project settlements in companies of the sector. He teaches at the Process Shutdown, Structural Decommissioning and Disposal course. In 2022 he joined the board of directors of the Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group.