Professor J Owen Lewis has been appointed as the new chief executive of Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI). He takes over this January from the SEI’s first CEO, David Taylor.

The body, which is Ireland’s national energy agency, promotes the development of sustainable energy through various responsibilities including; the publication of sustainable energy factsheets and leaflets to case studies and detailed reports, and provides energy saving grants to the domestic, commercial and R&D sectors.

Professor Lewis brings valuable experience to the post and is responsible for having established the UCD Energy Research Group in 1975, he was elected Dean of Engineering and Architecture at UCD in 2001, after which he became Principal of the UCD College of Engineering, Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Professor Lewis has also been Bord na Mona’s Director for R&D and Innovation.