Dr Esat Alpay
Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Surrey
Esat Alpay is a Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Process Engineering. He received his BSc (Hons) degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Surrey, and his PhD from the University of Cambridge. He also holds an MA degree in the Psychology of Education (with distinction) from the Institute of Education, University of London.
He has wide interests in the educational support and skills development of undergraduate and postgraduate students and is currently Deputy Direct of Teaching. In his previous role at Imperial College London, he was responsible for supporting, developing and leading various teaching initiatives across the Faculty of Engineering. This included ethics education in several engineering departments, the training of Graduate Teaching Assistants and overseeing the teacher training procedures and requirements of Probationary Lecturers in the Faculty of Engineering. Some of his educational interests include: the development and evaluation of student transferable skills, school to university transition issues and peer-based learning. He has particular interests in the application of psychology to facilitate student learning and personal development, and is keen on promoting scholarly activity in science and engineering education practice.
His past scientific research activities (Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London) have included studies in adsorption processes, hybrid reactors and polymerisation processes. His current research interests include: adsorption enhanced hydrogen production; structured reactor and adsorber systems, e.g. for high-temperature CO2 capture and domiciliary/personal-use O2 enrichment; novel thermal-swing applications (e.g. microwave desorption, thermal swing reaction); and applications of reactor and adsorber technologies to biomass processing (e.g. biomass-to-liquids).
Esat is Associate Editor of the European Journal of Engineering Education and on the Editorial Board of Engineering Education. He is also Chair of the Engineering Ethics Working Group of the European Society of Engineering Education (see www.sefi.be), and Associate of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). He has been the recipient of several national and institutional teaching awards including the Times Higher Award for the course Research Skills Development for early-career researchers, and the HEA Teaching Award for his work on Engineering Ethics.