Alan Brent

Alan Brent has bachelor degrees in engineering (chemical) and philosophy (sustainable development); master’s degrees in science (environmental engineering), engineering (technology management), and philosophy (sustainable development); and a doctorate in engineering management. Since 1995 he consulted to a variety of private and public sectors in the fields of environmental engineering and management, and as a project manager, in the Material Science and Manufacturing unit of the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). In 2002 he was tasked with the establishment of the AIDC Chair of Life Cycle Engineering in the Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM) of the University of Pretoria. The Chair mobilised the GSTM to conduct research on sustainable life cycle management practices in the private and public sectors. In 2006 he returned to the CSIR to initiate and lead research in the Natural Resources and the Environment unit, which promotes sustainable development in management and planning practices, with an emphasis on the energy sector. In 2009 he was appointed as a professor in the Sustainable Development programme of the School of Public Leadership (SPL) in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, and as the associate director of the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies (CRSES) in the Faculty of Engineering, at Stellenbosch University. In 2014 his academic position at Stellenbosch University changed from the SPL to the Department of Industrial Engineering (IE), as a professor of Engineering Management and Sustainable Systems, where is currently an extraordinary professor. From 2017 he is the professor and chair in Sustainable Energy Systems in the School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.