David MacKay, Chief Scientific Advisor
David MacKay
DECC’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Professor David MacKay FRS, is responsible for ensuring the best science and engineering advice underpins DECC’s policy and decision-making.
More specifically he has responsibility for:
- ensuring key policy and planning decisions in DECC are evidence-based
- ensuring DECC has a plan for meeting its 2020 and 2050 targets that is feasible, costed and deliverable
- ensuring DECC develops an effective knowledge management system
- supporting innovation, where government involvement is justified
- ensuring excellent advice on climate science
- accurate reporting of national greenhouse gas emissions, and
- acting as Head of Science and Engineering Profession for DECC and supporting the recruitment of additional engineering and scientific skills into the Department.
… and helping everybody understand the difference between a kilowatt and a kilowatt-hour.
In addition to his role at DECC, David is Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge. He studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge and then obtained his PhD in Computation and Neural Systems at the California Institute of Technology. He returned to Cambridge as a Royal Society research fellow at Darwin College. He is internationally known for his research in machine learning, information theory, and communication systems, including the invention of Dasher – a software interface that enables efficient communication in any language with any muscle. He has taught Physics in Cambridge since 1995 and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society.
David is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Sustainable Energy – without the hot air, which is intended to help people understand the numbers around sustainable energy. It can be downloaded or read online for free.