Dr Lauren Basson BSc (Chem Eng) MSc (Chem Eng) PhD
Lecturer and Director of the Environmental Life Cycle Management Programme
Member of Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES)

Email: l.basson@surrey.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 1483 686680
Fax: +44 1483 686671
(within the UK the +44 should be replaced by 0)

Lauren Basson joined CES in March 2006. She holds a PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sydney, Australia (awarded in 2004). Her principal area of interest is decision support for complex decision situations. To this end, her PhD focused on decision making in the private sector, and in particular on the use of multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to support decision making. One of the key contributions made by her PhD work has been the development of approaches and tools to consider the implications of different types of uncertainties for decision making. The focus of her current research in on decision making within energy networks, and in particular on the implications of decision made by various role players in such networks for the development, robustness and overall sustainability of the networks. This has lead to an interest in Complexity Theory and an exploration of agent-based approaches for the modelling of industrial networks. Prior to commencing with the PhD, Lauren worked as an environmental process engineer in an environmental consulting firm in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she consulted principally to the mining and minerals processing industries. She has also consulted extensively to the South African electrical utility (Eskom) on a range of projects including the selection of cleaner technologies for coal-based power generation, the screening of greenhouse gas reduction projects for the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol and the incorporation of sustainability considerations into the performance evaluation of senior management.