Chemical engineering graduate Josh Fearns has been awarded the 2022 Ashok Kumar Fellowship and will work alongside advisers in Parliament to inform the work of MPs and Peers.
Jointly funded by the Middlesbrough-based Materials Processing Institute and the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), the Fellowship includes a three-month placement with the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology where the 23-year-old will produce a briefing note or contribute to an area of public policy related to science and engineering.
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The Fellowship was established in 2010 in memory of IChemE Fellow Ashok Kumar who, at the time of his sudden death that year aged 53, was Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and Cleveland East and the only Chartered Chemical Engineer in the House of Commons.
Fearns recently completed his Master of Engineering (MEng) in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Surrey where he researched the use of stochastic programming - an optimisation framework that deals with decision-making under uncertainty - for applying probabilities to variables like natural gas price that may be random in the future.
His modelling aims to enable mitigation strategies to be put in place when values change and allow policymakers to have more confidence in more accurate results.
He also spent a year in industry through an internship at energy technology company Baker Hughes in Bristol, learning about and working on risk assessments, accident investigations, and employee safety engagement projects.
Fearns, who now lives in Wirral, begins his Fellowship in early 2023. He said: “I am honoured to be awarded the prestigious Ashok Kumar Fellowship and look forward to working with parliamentarians to support decision-making. The Ashok Kumar Fellowship is a special and unique channel that allows the application of key chemical engineering skills, such as research and communication, to tackle societal challenges.
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