Professor Zoe Shipton
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Personal statement
Personal statement
Engineering the subsurface is critical to reaching net zero: underpinning new clean energy (geothermal, offshore wind); enabling large-scale energy storage (pumped storage hydropower; thermal storage, compressed air, hydrogen); and providing safe long-term storage of waste (geological disposal of CO2, radioactive waste disposal). My research spans fundamental geoscience research on subsurface processes, understanding geological and interpretational uncertainties, through to the social science of communicating these geological concepts & uncertainties, and demonstrating novel technologies through in-ground experiments. To help achieve the large-scale changes in our energy system and society that are needed to meet - and ideally exceed - our net zero targets, I work in close collaboration between academia, industry, government and civil society across a wide range of disciplines.
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Prize And Awards
- Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
- Recipient
- 7/2025
- Saltire Society Fletcher of Saltoun Award for contribution to Science
- Recipient
- 7/11/2023
- Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
- Recipient
- 2016
- Awarded the William Smith Fund for excellence in contributions to applied and economic aspects of geology in an under 40.
- Recipient
- 2010
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Publications
- Lifetime techno-economic modelling of underground mineshaft thermal storage for district heating
- Flett Graeme, Tuohy Paul, Dassow Jessica, Burnside Neil, Ewe Win Eng, Flude Stephanie, Molnar Ian, Mukherjee Indrani, Wang Huachuan, Yang Shangtong, Shipton Zoe
- Journal of Energy Storage Vol 162 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2026.121544
- Modelling heat and fluid flow during heating of a water filled mine shaft
- Dassow Jessica, Molnar Ian, Flett Graeme, Attili Antonio, Burnside Neil, Ewe Win Eng, Flude Stephanie, Mukherjee Indrani, Tuohy Paul, Wang Huachuan, Yang Shangtong, Shipton Zoe
- Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology Vol 59 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1144/qjegh2025-121
- Mine shaft water for thermal energy storage : A move toward net-zero
- Mukherjee Indrani, Burnside Neil M, Flude Stephanie, Whittington Daniel J, Dassow Jessica, Wang Huachuan, Ewe Win Eng, Yang Shangtong, Molnar Ian L, Tuohy Paul, Flett Graeme, Shipton Zoe
- Water Security, Management, and Energy Nexus 1st International Conference on Sustainable Water Management, and Resource Adaptation, SWMRA 2024 Advances in Science, Technology and Innovation, pp. 331-342 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-06709-8_33
- Screening of mine shafts for future energy technologies : a case study from the Scottish coalfields
- Deeming K B, Otalega I, Johnson G, Flude S, Shipton Z K, Burnside N M
- Geoenergy Vol 1 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1144/egc1-2024-50
- How useful are outcrop samples to constrain subsurface thermal properties for geothermal exploration? Case study from the Chester formation, UK
- Brémaud Maëlle, Burnside Neil M, Shipton Zoe K, Bossennec Claire, Fuchs Sven, Deon Fiorenza
- Geothermics Vol 136 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geothermics.2026.103617
- Comparing geological process-based and engineering data-based approaches to characterizing rock mass heterogeneities : insights from the Great Glen Fault, Scotland
- Kim Namgwon, Shipton Zoe K, Kremer Yannick, Jack Christopher D
- Engineering Geology Vol 362 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2025.108529
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Professional Activities
- Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) for Minewater Thermal Energy Technologies
- Participant
- 8/5/2025
- A series of fortuitous events: Capture of carbon dioxide by milling of silicate minerals
- Speaker
- 29/1/2024
- Fault architecture in the Port Campbell Embayment, Otway Basin (Vic, Australia)
- Contributor
- 10/1/2024
- European Geoscience Union (EGU) 2020
- Speaker
- 6/5/2020
- European Geoscience Union (EGU) 2020
- Speaker
- 6/5/2020
- European Geoscience Union (EGU) 2020
- Speaker
- 5/5/2020
Projects
- Generative and Agentic AI for 3D Geological Modelling in Tunnelling
- Suryasentana, Stephen (Principal Investigator) Kremer, Yannick (Co-investigator) Shipton, Zoe (Co-investigator)
- 05-Jan-2026 - 30-Jan-2027
- Uncertainty Quantification in CO2 Emissions at Organisational and Product Level
- Paez Jimenez, Mariana Gabriela (Post Grad Student) De Angelis, Marco (Principal Investigator) Giesekam, Jannik (Co-investigator) Shipton, Zoe (Co-investigator)
- The uncertainty inherent in CO2 estimations at the organisational and product levels has received significantly less academic scrutiny than national or global inventories, yet such CO2 estimations serve as foundational data for higher-level carbon accounting. Carbon accounting often relies on practitioners whose expertise is not climate science, leading to high levels of epistemic uncertainty, methodological variation and data variability. This project addresses three critical questions: (1) How much uncertainty is inherent in these CO2 estimations? (2) Where does the uncertainty come from and how can it be mitigated? (3) How can the uncertainty be communicated to enable decisions towards net zero targets?
- 01-Jan-2025 - 30-Jan-2028
- Mechanochemical processing of silicate rocks for direct carbon capture (MACO2)
- Lunn, Rebecca (Principal Investigator) Giesekam, Jannik (Co-investigator) Shipton, Zoe (Co-investigator) Stillings, Mark (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 30-Jan-2027
- IDRIC Flex Funding: Use of speculative fiction for future imaginaries for CCUS to identify development pathways
- Roberts, Jen (Principal Investigator) Shipton, Zoe (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2023 - 29-Jan-2024
- Understanding the rock fatigue mechanisms in underground hydrogen storage FUSE (Global Partnerships Seedcorn Fund)
- Yang, Shangtong (Principal Investigator) Lunn, Rebecca (Co-investigator) Shipton, Zoe (Co-investigator)
- 02-Jan-2023 - 01-Jan-2025
- Bridging current knowledge gaps to enable the UPTAKE of carbon dioxide removal methods (UPTAKE) HORIZON-RIA
- Roberts, Jen (Principal Investigator) Shipton, Zoe (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2027
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Contact
Professor
Zoe
Shipton
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Email: zoe.shipton@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 3183