DfT makes Thornley new Chief Scientific Adviser

Professor Patricia Thornley has been appointed as new DfT Chief  Scientific Adviser, succeeding Professor Sarah Sharples, and will join DfT early next year.

She already plays an influential role in government science advice as  Deputy Chair of DfT’s Scientific Advisory Council and as a member of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Science Advisory Council.

Professor Thornley is a specialist in the field of sustainable energy, with extensive contributions to advancing low carbon innovation and clean technologies She is  currently based at Aston University, where she directs the Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute, leading on bioenergy, clean transport and negative emissions.

She was previously Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems at the University of Manchester.

Jo Shanmugalingam, the DfT's Permanent Secretary, said  science, innovation and technology were  at the heart of  modernising transport for today’s world, and Thornley's expertise would be invaluable as the Government continued 

to strengthen innovation across the transport system and the use of science and research in everything it does.

Professor Patricia Thornley said: “The responsibility for providing scientific evidence to inform government decision-making in transport will build on my sustainable engineering background, but the UK academic community has vast breadth and depth of expertise applicable to transport and so positively