Goodbye to Christian Brand

For more than 20 years, Professor Christian Brand has been building a bridge between the TSU and the ECI. Over that time, he’s championed academic excellence and supported junior colleagues and done so with laughter and good humour. The bridge between the TSU and ECI is about to take a new shape, as Christian moves on to new cycle tracks and early retirement. 

As a world-renowned scholar of transport, energy and climate change, Christian has reshaped knowledge on active travel, electric vehicles and decarbonisation of the energy system. His collaborations in the UK, EU and internationally have produced impactful results, influencing the work of national governments and international agencies, and regularly featuring across the national and global media, from The Sun to the New Scientist, La Repubblica to National Geographic. He played an important role in the evolution of the WHO’s Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for walking and cycling, and led on the development of the Transport Energy Air pollution Model (TEAM) within the UKRI-funded UK Energy Research Consortium. More recently, his expertise in electric mobility was showcased in The Climate Book, edited by Greta Thunberg, and his thinking on ‘Mobesity’ has shone a light on the over-sized vehicles that are challenging decarbonisation efforts. 

Cycling and environmentalism have been more than a research focus for Christian, they’re at the centre of his life away from work. His love of the outdoors is palpable, we have all enjoyed his stories about his adventures over coffee. Christian practices what he preaches – and does so with a smile!  

We hope that Christian’s early retirement will give him time to embark on more adventures.  Whatever he does, we know it will always involve a great deal of fun and mischief! Christian will be missed by colleagues and friends at the TSU, ECI and across the department, but his joyful legacy will remain!