Ron Oxburgh

Ron Oxburgh (Lord Oxburgh of Liverpool) trained as a geologist/geophysicist (Oxford & Princeton). He subsequently taught and researched in those disciplines at Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford and Caltech also working as a consultant for the oil industry.

After a spell as President of Queens’ College Cambridge, he became Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence (1987-1993) and chaired the investigation into the safety of UK nuclear weapons.

He subsequently became Rector of Imperial College. Having been on the Board of Shell for a number of years he became Chairman in 2004 and oversaw the unification of Shell with Royal Dutch to form a single company 18 months later at which point he stood down.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering and a Foreign Member of the US Academy of Sciences.

He has served as President of the European Union of Geosciences, and of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He has chaired the Trustees of the Natural History Museum.

He was created a life Peer in 1999 and for four years chaired the Science and Technology Select Committee of the House of Lords.

He now an adviser on research and on environmental matters to the Government of Singapore and works with a number of organisations in the general field of energy and environment. He is an adviser to Climate Change Capital and to Englefield Capital and is chairman of D1Oils a bio-diesel company.

Author's website: D1Oils