Sonya Calnan is a Professor for Energy Engineering at Loughborough University since July 2024. Her research is focused on low carbon energy and fuel conversion systems involving hydrogen and its derivatives. She has a broad background in the development and long-term testing of electro- (thermo-) chemical reactors, catalyst synthesis and characterisation as well as multiscale-multi-physics computing to aid rapid prototyping.
She previously led a research group at the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin, Germany, where she acted as PI or co-Investigator on several German-national and international projects in the same field, funded by the European Commission (Horizon 2020), the Helmholtz Association and the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF).
Sonya received her PhD from the then Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Loughborough in 2009. She also holds a Masters in Business Administration from Leicester University, a Master of Science in Renewable Energy Systems (Aachen University of Applied Science) and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (Makerere University Uganda).