Who we are

Dr Katherine Sugar

Research Fellow - Energy Efficient Scotland Pilots Evaluation

Katherine is the newest addition to the Heat and the City team, having recently joined in April 2021. She is working as a Research Fellow and based in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh.
Her work includes the social evaluation of Energy Efficient Scotland's Transition Programme. Katherine recently obtained a PhD from University of Glasgow, which investigated governance for low carbon and inclusive cities.

Dr Ruth Bush

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Ruth is a Research Fellow whose research examines UK and Scottish policies and practice for energy efficiency and low carbon heat. Most recently Ruth has worked on an analysis of the UK Clean Growth Strategy and supported Faye Wade's work on the social evaluation of the Energy Efficient Scotland pilot projects.

Dr Fabian Fuentes Gonzalez

Postdoctoral Researcher

Fabian is based in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. Fabian's current work is about synthesising, extending, mapping, and sharing empirical evidence about the UK’s existing local energy system businesses and finances.

Dr Mags Tingey

Honorary Fellow

Mags is based in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. Mags' research is about local government strategies for investment in low carbon energy, currently with a focus on energy efficiency and low carbon heat.

Dr Faye Wade

ClimateXChange Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Faye is based in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. Faye's work involves a social evaluation of the pilot projects taking place under the Energy Efficient Scotland programme. This interdisciplinary work includes qualitative interviews with local authorities delivering building retrofit and surveys with building occupants and users before and after retrofit.

Professor Janette Webb

Professor of Sociology of Organisations

Janette Webb is Professor of Sociology of Organisations at the University of Edinburgh; her research is on social studies of energy and climate change.

Dr Ronan Bolton

Lecturer

Ronan is a Lecturer in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies at the University of Edinburgh whose research contributed to the Reframing Energy Demand project.

Dr David Hawkey

David now works at Scottish Government on heat planning and delivery. In his role at Heat and the City, David's research dealt with sustainable heat, energy efficiency, local energy and the social construction of economic value. He contributed to a number of our research projects.

Dr Mark Winskel

Chancellor's Fellow and Senior Lecturer

Mark is based in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies at the University of Edinburgh and contributed to both our initial Heat and the City research project and the Reframing Energy Demand project.

Lisa Howard

Research Fellow

Lisa joined in June 2021 to work on the scoping study 'Net Zero Living and Societal Change'. The scoping project runs from June to December 2021 and will develop different narrative scenarios of both utopian and dystopian futures in Edinburgh. The study aims to contribute knowledge on the social and cultural dimensions of the City of Edinburgh's net zero strategy, to assist with the city council's ambitious goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.

Lisa is currently writing up her PhD in environmental sociology, based at the University of Edinburgh.