Biography
Vision & Expertise:
Professor Hongjian Sun’s vision is to advance digitalisation technologies to drive sustainability across our planet’s energy systems and cities, while ensuring the sustainability of digital systems themselves. His expertise focuses on the decarbonisation of energy systems through innovative digital technologies, alongside driving the sustainability of digital technologies themselves. This includes a comprehensive understanding of the interactions and synergies between digitalisation and energy systems, enabling an integrated system approach.
Background:
Professor Sun received his Ph.D. degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering at the University of Edinburgh (U.K.) and then took postdoctoral positions at King’s College London (U.K.) and Princeton University (USA). Since April 2013, he has been with the Department of Engineering at the University of Durham, U.K. – 78th in the QS World University Rankings in 2024. He is a Professor (Chair), a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of Durham Energy Institute, and a Fellow of Higher Education Academy.
Besides being a Senator at Durham University, Prof. Sun is the Director of Research for the Department of Engineering, and Head of Durham Smart Grid Laboratory, leading a research team consisting of over 30 postdoc/doctorate researchers. His research activities focus on: (i) demand side management and demand response, (ii) renewable energy sources integration and virtual power plants and (iii) sustainable digital systems. Professor Sun has an established track record of publishing high quality scientific articles, with 3 books and over 200 papers in refereed journals and international conferences.
Track-record:
Professor Sun has successfully contributed to over £30million in research funding (as Principal Investigator for more than £7million and over £1million in equipment funding) and supervised the completion of over 20 PhD/MScR projects. Particularly he has led interdisciplinary projects, including the £2million EPSRC VPP-WARD project working with mathematicians and computer scientists etc. to create physics-informed AI for operating virtual power plants, and the £1million UKRI cross-research council SAT-Guard project to create safer, more equitable and sustainable energy communities in the face of climate change. Working with Professor Vincent Poor at Princeton University, Prof. Sun co-founded an IET Journal, that is IET Smart Grid with Impact Factor 2.3 and CiteScore 6.9, and he is still acting as the Editor-in-Chief.
