People A-Z
Prof. Chris Dent
Research Interests
Research Groups
Biographical Statement
Chris Dent is Professor of Industrial Mathematics in the School of Mathematics. He joined the School of Mathematics as Chancellor's Fellow and Reader in September 2016, before being promoted in summer 2020. He was previously a Research Associate in the Institute for Energy Systems at Edinburgh (2007-9), and from 2009-16 he worked in the School of Engineering and Computing Sciences at Durham University (Research Fellow 09-11, Lecturer 11-14, Senior Lecturer 14-16).
His principal research interests lie in decision support analysis in the energy, infrastructure and government sectors. Recent projects include leading the Managing Uncertainty in Government Modelling project at the Alan Turing Institute, being Co-Director of the Centre for Energy Systems Integration with particular responsibility for coordinating interdisciplinary modelling, Technical Lead on the National Digital Twin Programme Climate Resilience Demonstrator, and consulting work including on electricity security of supply risk analysis and on electricity control room operations. In 2023-24 he will hold a knowledge exchange fellowship from the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, working with the Global Power System Transformation consortium across their innovation agenda, and more broadly developing connections between the mathematical science community and energy innovation agendas.
In addition to his main appointment at Edinburgh, he is a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, the UK's National Institute for Data Science and AI. In 2012 he won the IET Mike Sargeant Young Engineer Career Achievement Award, and in 2022 was co-recipient of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society Impact Award. He is a Fellow of the OR Society, of the Institution of Engneering and Technology, and of the Institution of Engineers in Scotland, a Chartered Engineer, and a Senior Member of the IEEE. When not doing research in industrial mathematics, he enjoys playing the cello and hillwalking (in 2009 he became Munroist 4475.)
Prof. Dent is interested in taking on PhD students in any of his areas of interest, particularly in infrastructure planning and operation decision support, uncertainty quantification in large scale energy system models, security of supply risk analysis, statistical modelling of renewable resource, climate resilience, and applications of decision support analysis in the public sector.
A full list of Prof. Dent's publications may be found by clicking here.
Education Background
- 2005-6 MSc in Operational Research, University of Edinburgh
- 1998-2001 PhD in Theoretical Physics, Loughborough University
- 1994-97 MA in Mathematics, University of Cambridge
Previous Employment
- 2011-16 Senior Lecturer in Energy Systems Modelling (Lecturer 2011-14), School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, Durham University
- 2013-16 Co-Director for Impact (Impact Fellow 2013-15), Durham Energy Institute
- 2009-11 Research Fellow, School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, Durham University
- 2007-9 Research Fellow, Institute for Energy Systems, University of Edinburgh