Judging
The Rushlight Awards are judged by leading experts in their chosen fields who are entirely independent of sponsors, headline partners and Eventure Media. They have been invited to join the panels due to their impartiality, vast experience and knowledge.
The judges for the Rushlight Awards 2017-18 are as follows:
David Aitken – Head of Incubation, Carbon Trust
Linda Crichton – Head of Resource Management, WRAP
Prof Paul Ekins – Professor of Energy and Environment Policy UCL Energy Institute, University College London, former Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, co-founder of Forum for the Future
Prof David Elliott – Prof of Technology Policy and co-Director of the Energy & Environment Research Unit, The Open University
Geraint Evans – Bioenergy Programme Manager, Energy Technologies Institute
Rukhsana Faiz – Chair, London & South East Group, The Institution of Chemical Engineers and former Environmental Industry Sector Director, WSP.
Toni Gladding – Senior Lecturer in Environmental Engineering, Open University
Malcolm Grimston – Associate Fellow Chatham House and Senior Research Fellow Energy Policy and Management Group, Imperial College
Beverley Gower-Jones – CEO Carbon Limiting Technologies, former Performance Director QinetiQ and Vice President Shell Technology Ventures
Jim Halliday – Head of Energy Research Unit at (STFC) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Simon Hamlyn – CEO British Hydropower Association
Roy Hathaway – European Policy Advisor, Environmental Services Association
Prof Stuart Haszeldine – Prof of Sedimentary Geology, Edinburgh University
Nicola Henderson – Non-Executive Director and Chair Technology Forum at British Water, Managing Director at Aquability OPS Ltd
Emma Hennessey – Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser and Acting Head, Global Economic Issues Department, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
David Lloyd Owen – MD Envisager Ltd, author of 5 books on water markets and management and adviser to a number of investment funds, eg 3i plc and Pictet
Craig Lucas – Director of Science and Innovation at BEIS
Steve Malkin – CEO Planet First
Jim Marshall – Policy & Business Advisor, Water UK
Richard Miller – former Head of Sustainability, Innovate UK
Bob Moran – Head of Low Carbon Vehicle Regulation, R&D and Procurement, Office for Low Emission Vehicles
Alex Moscuzza – Climate Change and Environment Adviser, Department for International Development
Prof John Murlis – Vice President Environmental Protection UK, Vice Chair of the European Federation of Clean Air Associations and former Chief Scientist and Director of Strategy Environment Agency
Chris Murphy – Deputy Chief Executive CIWM
Prof John Oakey – Head of Energy Technology Centre Cranfield University
Mike Pitts – Head of Urban Systems, Innovate UK
Amit Rama – Director UK Climate Investments, a JV between the Green Investment Group and BEIS
Gareth Redmond-King – Head of Energy and Climate Change, WWF
Prof Carolyn Roberts – Professor of the Environment at Gresham College
Prof Tony Roskilly – Director, Sir Joseph Swan Centre for Energy Research, Newcastle University
Prof Nilay Shah – Head of Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College
Phil Sheppard – Research Associate, Loughborough University
John Stewart – Chairman UK Noise Association
Nee-Joo Teh – Head of Renewable Energy, The Knowledge Transfer Network
Clare Wenner – Consultant and former Head of Renewable Transport, Renewable Energy Association
Mike Weston – Operations Manager, UKERC
Judging rules:
- The judges’ decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into concerning the judging process or the decisions made.
- The judges can move an entry to a different category if it is felt that it is more appropiate in the other category.
- The judges can choose not to give an award if the entries are not deemed to be of a suitable standard.
- Judges have the opportunity to give special commendations to entries of particular merit.
- No lobbying of the judges will be allowed.
It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Prof Chris Coggins who had been a judge and supporter of the Rushlight Awards from the start. We reproduce below the obituary that was published in www.letsrecycle.com:
Obituary: Chris Coggins
Tributes have been paid to Professor Chris Coggins, PGCE PhD FCIWM FRGS FRSA, who died earlier this week aged 69.
Prof Coggins was a well-known and respected authority on waste management and a popular figure throughout the industry.
Professor Chris Coggins at the Wellcome Witness Seminar 2014 on The Development of Waste Management in the UK c.1960–c.2000. Image courtesy Wellcome Library.
He served as senior lecturer in Geography, then Reader in Waste Management at Luton College of Higher Education – which later become known as the University of Luton – from 1972 to 1997. From 1993, he was also Director of the University’s Centre for Waste Management.
He later became Director of the University of Sheffield’s Waste Management and Technology Centre and worked there until 2001, where he started his private waste management research consultancy, WAMTECH, of which he was director until his retirement.
Career
His areas of expertise included waste composition, waste strategies and policy, civic amenity sites, market development for wastes as raw materials and technology options for waste as an energy resource, and postgraduate education.
In his later life he contributed to a project charting the development of the waste management sector in the UK, on behalf of the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, Queen Mary University of London (see letsrecycle.com story). He talked about his life and career to the project at Biomedicine Research.
Prof Coggins was married to Sue, who passed away last year, and is survived by two children.
Leading the tributes, Dr Toni Gladding, senior lecturer at the Open University, who studied for her PHD under Dr Coggins, shared her memories of him as an academic.
She said: “I would describe him as an exacting supervisor and I do think he had the foresight to see that health and safety would be an issue in the waste industry with the massive changes it underwent in the 1990s from predominantly landfill to recycling.
“The most important thing I should mention is he introduced me to my husband around 1992/93. He knew him in the industry before me, and I met him through my PhD research, basically he introduced us. So I’ve got a doctorate and a husband to thank him for!
“Mostly I remember him sticking to his guns even if his opinion was unpopular, both in the University and in the industry. I’m sure we will miss his bombastic personality.”
Passion
Ray Georgeson, chief executive of the Resource Association added: “I am very sorry to hear the news having known Chris throughout most of my career in waste and recycling, he will be sadly missed.
“He was a great character on the industry circuit, very robust in his views, very good for a lively discussion and also a beer.”
Mr Georgeson also recalled how the two had shared an enthusiasm for collecting model waste trucks, with Prof Coggins having what he described as a ‘legendary’ collection of models. He also collected petro-stamps – stamps related to petroleum.
Knowledge
Professor Margaret Bates, president of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management, described Prof Coggins as a ‘proper academic’, adding that he was always keen to share his knowledge and his work.
She said: “The main thing about Chris was his passion, whether it was for waste, for Wales, rugby or beer.
“He was also passionate about how waste management could make a difference in people’s lives. He really will be missed, it is a terrible shock.”
Steve Eminton, editor of letsrecycle.com, said: “Chris was a fount of knowledge and wrote a number of pieces for us. It was always worth calling him to find out specific facts and he had an enthusiasm for a wide range of waste and resource-related topics.”
Dr Jane Beasley, who also studied under Prof Coggins, said: “He was the reason I got into waste management. He was really inspiring, really knowledgable and really supportive, he really cared about the subject. The only reason he would ever argue with anyone was because he cared. He is the one person to have had the biggest impact on my career.”
Richard Kirkman, technical director at Veolia, also paid tribute to Prof Coggins and his influence on the sector, adding: “Chris was a great influence on the scientific understanding behind waste and resource management and we had the pleasure of working with and learning from him over the years. More recently we collaborated as part of the History of UK Waste work with Queen Mary University of London and he was an inspiration to all involved.”