The Brahmal Vasudevan Institute for Sustainable Aviation is Imperial College London’s flagship cross-disciplinary research centre dedicated to achieving a net-zero aviation sector. Our mission is to enable pioneering blue-sky research with truly transformational potential, to cultivate the skills required for a net-zero economy, and to support evidence-based decision-making across technology development, innovation, and policy.
The institute was established in 2022 following a £25 million gift from alumnus Brahmal Vasudevan (Aeronautical Engineering, 1990), Founder and CEO of private equity firm Creador, and Shanthi Kandiah, founder of legal firm SK Chambers. It builds on Imperial’s successful track record in developing foundational technologies with significant societal impact, as well as its world-leading innovation ecosystem.
We are acutely aware of the challenges posed by the net-zero transition for the aviation sector. Consequently, our research rethinks the way flying operates by adopting a holistic approach that encompasses all elements of air transport, from composite materials and aircraft design to fuel, flight paths, regulatory practices, policy, and behavioural change.
We achieve this by bringing together teams of researchers from Imperial and beyond to address system-level challenges that benefit from expertise across diverse fields.
The Institute hosts a series of live-streamed seminars that review the current state of the transition to net-zero aviation. It also runs Imperial’s Doctoral Programme in Sustainable Aviation, which supports 15–20 doctoral students at any given time, working on a mixture of exploratory and industry-driven projects. Topic-specific research networks linking researchers across the Imperial ecosystem are currently being established.
Research Aims
Insight
Improve understanding of the interactions between aviation and the environment.
Innovation
Identify technology and regulatory pathways with the greatest potential to accelerate the net-zero transition.
Equity
Ensure that our technology choices continue to guarantee equitable access to a future aviation system.
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Brahmal Vasudevan
Imperial alumnus Brahmal Vasudevan is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Creador, a private equity firm focused on high-growth markets in South and South East Asia. Brahmal founded Creador in 2011 after spending 11 years as a General Partner and Managing Director of ChrysCapital, a leading private equity firm focused on growth capital investments in India. Brahmal graduated from Imperial College London with a First-Class Honours degree in Aeronautical Engineering and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
