Mike Tennant

Dr Mike Tennant works for half of his time in the Centre for Environmental Policy, where he co-convenes the ''Business and the Environment Option'' of the MSc in Environmental Technology. He is also the Vice-Dean for Education in the Faculty of Natural Sciences. I am a natural scientist by training and an interdisciplinary scientist by preference. My main interests are in systems thinking, complexity and innovation in the context of sustainability and organisations. Understanding the complex nature of environmental and social contexts in which an organisation operates and designing interventions informed by those contexts is key to coping with sustainability. I am particularly interested in using and developing creativity and systems tools to design disruptive and innovative products, services and policies that meet environmental and social needs. I have an interest in the circular economy and was Imperial's lead investigator on the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability. My main interest there was understanding the role and form that the manufacturing industry could take in a constrained world. The PhD students that I have supervised investigated topics ranging from social inclusivity in the circular economy, resilient urban design and environmentally-focused social movements. I have a Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry from The University of Manchester and worked for 14 years in various roles in research and management in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in the UK and USA. In these positions I lead research teams, directed multi-disciplinary therapeutic area research (diabetes and anti-bacterial), helped set up and build out two biotechnology start-up companies in California and was active in portfolio management and business development. A change of career saw me head to Imperial College and take the M.Sc. Environmental Technology course (Business and Environment) and an M.Ed. After a brief stint as the Chief Technology Officer in a cleantech development company in London I moved back into academia in order to further my interests in understanding how business can contribute to, and benefit from, the growing sustainability movement.

• Faculty of Natural Sciences