Alumni 2017-18

Class of 2017 18

Reuben Cruise was offered work at the Energy Policy Research Group in the Cambridge Judge Business School as a Research Assistant in Electricity and Gas Market Modelling just one week after handing in his MPhil in Nuclear Energy dissertation! He has been working on long-term electricity and gas market pricing, and market designs to cope with the effect of increased renewable penetration in the electricity mix. This involved plant-level performance modelling, which the technical aspect of the MPhil helped with when it came to determining and explaining the ramping, starting, restarting and costs of individual nuclear plants. In addition, this is closely linked to the electricity market game that is part of the Nuclear Policy MPhil course, as Reuben was creating the same supply-demand curves but for real world applications.

Reuben started a PhD at Imperial College London, entitled  'Dry separation of minerals for Lunar In Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU)'.  "I can't stress how instrumental the MPhil has been in preparing me for that! It was such a good experience (be that tough) and I'm really grateful to have had that opportunity." said Reuben.

Kris Ormandyis currently working as an Analyst at Aurora Energy Research in Oxford. His work is in the research and publications team focussing on distributed and flexible energy systems in the GB market.

 The energy markets are modelled up to 2040 and I will be researching how these systems will integrate into the electricity market over this period.

In 2019, Bertie and Tim founded Alectro, https://alectro.io/index.html a SaaS platform providing carbon emission insight to organisations. Alectro helps to analyse and interpret data ranging from the electricity used to the coffee people drink, and helps companies and organisations to supercharge their sustainability strategies. Our Virtual Sustainability Officer™platform provides the company and employees with the tools they need to successfully deliver a comprehensive net-zero strategy.

At the end of 2020, we received VC funding from a London-based venture capitalist firm to develop our platform further and have since been expanding rapidly. We currently have over 30 clients, in three continents, ranging from 300-year-old societies to UK hydrogen fuel cell production companies.

“The MPhil gave us the deep technical skills to tackle industry-leading problems and was a great footing when speaking to investors as they recognised that the academic rigour that the course required would put us in a great position moving forward. Most importantly, the course allowed us to interact with other course members in a range of disciplines, such as the debating exercise where we had our first project together. Without the course, we would not have started Alectro.”

Rachel Wibleis currently a submarine Naval Officer in the US Navy. For the last year, she has been training in the design and operations of US Naval Reactors and will begin serving with their fleet and reactors within the year.

Toni Kunchev stayed in Cambridge to join the Nuclear Energy Research Group. Toni’s work focuses on the multiphysics modelling of reduced-moderation boiling water reactors for transuranic waste burning and fuel breeding. These reactors are seen as an alternative to fast reactors in reducing the nuclear waste legacy and potentially providing long-term security of energy supply. “The technical skills I gained over the course of the MPhil and the supportive and vibrant research environment are crucial to my work. I hope my research makes a constructive contribution to our team and to our industry in general.” Toni was also involved as Student Chair in the organization of the PHYSOR2020 conference, which was to be hosted by the University of Cambridge in March-April 2020. This prestigious conference was to be an exciting opportunity to showcase the competence of the UK nuclear research community on the global stage

After the course, Rob Hurn knew two things: He wanted to work in New York and secondly, he was more interested in the policy/economics side of things, that he  had been exposed to during the MPhil and he wanted to launch his career in that direction.

"After turning in my thesis, I flew over to NYC with a 90 day tourist visa in the hope that I would be able to find something in that time. I shopped around a lot of entry-level positions in the city, and by sheer luck ended up at a financial engineering/consulting firm called Bridgewater Associates. Although small in size (~1000+ employees), Bridgewater manages over $160 billion for some of the worlds largest institutions (mostly public pension funds and central banks). The founder, Ray Dalio, is the author of the book “Principles”, which I highly recommend reading." stated Rob.
Rob works in the advisory side of the firm, where the company act as strategic partners with their clients to discuss major themes in the global economy and advise on how to position accordingly. Recently he worked on a project relating to why we are seeing a resurgence of populist leaders around the world and what impact this is likely to have on global markets. He is very excited to have been given the opportunity to work at such a fascinating and impactful company and Rob is looking forward to where the next few years take him!
Jordan Wain is currently working as the senior lecturer in Emergency Nuclear Response at the Defense Academy.  He lectures up to Masters level in topics including: Emergency Nuclear Response, Radiation Protection and Environmental Impact Assessment.