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William Nuttall

Director of the MoTI Programme
Assistant Director of the ESRC Electricity Policy Research Group
University Senior Lecturer in Technology Policy

BSc Hons (Univ. of East Anglia), PhD (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Shared post at Judge Business School and the University of Cambridge Engineering Department

Professional Experience

William Nuttall's research centres upon issues concerning energy technologies and public policy. A major area of activity relates to nuclear energy, the nuclear fuel cycle and possibilities for advanced nuclear energy technologies. He teaches on the Technology Policy MPhil and was its founding Director (2002-2006). He has much experience of the use of electronic teaching resources, in class role-play simulation and field trips in support of post-graduate teaching.

Dr Nuttall is involved in several University-based projects. He is an Assistant Director of the Electricity Policy Research Group and he is UK Director of the Cambridge-MIT Energy Security Initiative. He is currently a participant in the EC project Coordinating Energy Security of Supply Activities and is Principle Investigator for an industry-funded project considering the future of global helium resources. In addition to his energy interests Dr Nuttall maintains active scholarship and research in complexity science and agent-based simulation.

Dr Nuttall is a member of the editorial board of Innovations, a journal from MIT Press. He is also a member of the International Organizing Committee of the International Conferences on Technology Policy and Innovation.

William Nuttall is an advisor to the DTI (Energy and Foresight), the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology and the IEA, and has given evidence and advice to Select Committees of the House of Lords. He has also advised the BG Group, E.ON UK and British Energy. He is an experienced commentator on energy issues for government, parliament and news media (print, broadcast and online).

Awards and Scholarships

• East of England Energy Group Innovation Award (3rd Place), 2006
• Overseas Research Studentship, Science and Engineering Research Council, 1989-1991
• MIT Industrial Forum Fellowship, 1987
• Fulbright Scholarship (Post-Graduate Student Award), 1987-1988

Research Interests

Energy policy, with a particular emphasis on nuclear power; the role of new physics based technologies for power generation and waste management; condensed matter physics; innovative approaches to research evaluation; complexity and agent-based simulation.

William Nuttall is a member of the Energy & Environment research group and the Operations, Information & Technology teaching group.

Selected Publications

Nuttall, W.J. (2005) Nuclear renaissance: technologies and policies for the future of nuclear power. Bristol: IOP/CRC Press, Taylor and Francis.

Roques, F.A., Nuttall, W.J., Newbery, D.M., de Neufville, R. and Connors, S. (2006) "Nuclear power: a hedge against uncertain gas and carbon prices?" The Energy Journal, 37(4): 1-23

Jamasb, T., Nuttall, W.J. and Pollitt, M.G. (eds.) (2006) Future electricity technologies and systems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nuttall, W.J., Farnan, I., Hamilton, D.J. and Konings, R.J.M. (2007) "Special issue on options for the long-term management of separated plutonium." Progress in Nuclear Energy, 49(8)

Roques, F.A., Newbery, D.M. and Nuttall, W.J. (2008) "Fuel mix diversification incentives in liberalized electricity markets: a mean-variance portfolio theory approach." Energy Economics, 30(4): 1831-1849 (DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2007.11.008)

Bredimas, A. and Nuttall, W.J. (2008) "An international comparison of regulatory organizations and licensing procedures for new nuclear power plants." Energy Policy, 36(4): 1344-1354 (DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2007.10.035)

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