DrJorge Varela Barreras
Honorary Research Fellow
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering - Faculty of Engineering
- Honorary Research FellowDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering - Faculty of Engineering
- 409, City and Guilds Building, South Kensington Campus, United Kingdom
BIO
Jorge has more than 15 years of R&D experience in batteries, battery management systems, and their applications in electric vehicles (EVs) and renewables, combining academic and industrial roles. He is interested in design, control, modelling, and testing of battery systems, renewables, power electronics, EVs, and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs).
CURRENT ACADEMIC & INDUSTRIAL ROLES
• From March 2021, Jorge works in industry as a EV and Battery Expert at CTAG
• In October 2022, he was awarded a Maria Zambrano International Talent Attraction Fellowship at UPC
• In March 2023, he was distinguished with an Honorary Research Fellow association with Imperial College London
• In June 2024, he was elevated to IEEE Senior Member
• He is also a Lead Consultant at Imperial Consultants (ICON)
PREVIOUS ROLES
Previously, Jorge was a fellow of The Faraday Institution, postdoc in Imperial College London (2019-2022) and the University of Oxford (2016-2018), co-chairman of the Oxford Research Staff Society, joint chairman of the IEEE UK and Ireland Education Society, founder member of the Danish Battery Society, and co-founder of an engineering company (Triple Solar).
He was a visiting researcher at RWTH ISEA Aachen, FEUP and INESC TEC, and guest lecturer at the University of Oxford, Imperial College London, Newcastle University, University of Warwick, University of Sfax, University of Vigo, University Carlos III, UPC, Aalborg University, DTI and DTU.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Jorge holds two master’s degrees with good honours, in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vigo, and and Power Electronic and Drives from Aalborg University. He was awarded the PhD in Engineering also from Aalborg in May 2017.
INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES
At CTAG, Jorge is currently supporting the development of multi-million laboratory facilities for EV and battery performance and abuse testing for OEMs and TIER-1.
As consultant, he has co-founded an engineering consulting company, and provided services to OEMs and TIER-1, consultancy firms, funding bodies and policymakers.
ACADEMIC CAREER
• Co-author of +40 peer-reviewed scientific publications (22 as first author), including 16 journal articles and 2 book chapters
• Over 1,000 citations, an h-index of 17, and a h-10 index of 26
• Involved in more than 20 R&D projects with a combined budget over £80M, two as named researcher, and two as PI
• (Co-)supervisor of 2 PhD students, 41 under-/post-graduate students, in 35 research-oriented projects, including 20 final year projects
• Provided more than 600 hours of teaching
• Delivered 3 tutorials in IEEE conferences, 19 keynote lectures, and 16 oral and 10 poster presentations in conferences
• Produced 15 video-lessons for a MOOC on Fundamentals of Batteries organized by the European Institute of Technology (EIT)
SERVICE
He is involved in the scientific community as editor of eTransportation and World Electric Vehicle Journal. He has been the guest editor of two special issues in eTransportation and Energies.
He sits in the technical committee of three IEEE sponsored conferences (IC-REST, VPPC and EVER). He is the currently chairing the regular track in energy storage in VPPC.
Previously, he was the co-chair of IEEE UK & Ireland Education Society Chapter, and the co-chairman of the University of Oxford Research Staff Society (6.000 members), and founder member of the Danish Battery Society.
SELECTED AWARDS
• IEEE Senior Member, US, 2024
• Honorary Research Fellowship, Imperial College London, UK, 2023
• Maria Zambrano International Talent Fellowship, UPC, Spain, 2022
• World Winner Section of IEEE Industrial Engagement Competition, IEEE UK & Ireland Section, US, 2020
• Seminar speaker, IEEE VPPC, Spain, 2020
• Plenary speaker, 6th BMS conf., Germany, 2019
• Plenary speaker, 3rd automobile conf., Germany, 2017
• Seminar speaker, VPPC, France, 2017
• STFC Batteries Early Career, UK, 2017
• Best Special Session, IEEE EVER, Monaco, 2016
• Finalist Falling Walls Lab, Spain, 2015
• Best Paper Award EVs, IEEE EVER, Monaco, 2015
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
2022, February 24 / Interview in the blog of the ICOIIG, the official professional association of Chartered Industrial Engineers in Galicia, Spain. Talking about the engineering labour market in the UK.
2021, March-June / Developing an online training program for The Faraday Institution on electric vehicle safety targeted for first responders and emergency services.
2021, April 22 / Keynote speaker in webinar around electric vehicle safety organized by SEGANOSA targeted for first responders and emergency services.
2020, September 23 / Press article in Science Daily, entitled “Battery fires: Industry and research must work together for safer batteries”, featuring results from a recent research article that I co-authored.
2020, September 23 / Press release in Imperial News, featuring results from a recent research article that I co-authored and published on the 17 August 2020 in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society.
2020, July 26 / Participating and winning Global IEEE Industrial Engagement Competition, a global competition for IEEE Sections to showcase their industry engagement initiatives, such as events, workshops, lectures, events, industry tours, products/services etc.
2018-2019 / Organizing Chapter the delivery of 17 webinars (11 h) for the general public through the IEEE UK and Ireland Education Society, covering engineering topics such as IP management, Internet-of-things, Lean Manufacturing, Cyber Security, Sustainable Innovation Culture, Machine Learning and Deep Learning.
2018, September Issue / Front-page article in the Oxford Research Staff Society (OxRSS) Newsletter, entitled “The OxRSS recommendations regarding Brexit”
2018, September 18 / Guest speaker in the Research and Innovation Support Network (RISN) Conference, delivering a session entitled “A career in research – having career conversations with PDRAs”. RISN is a community of Oxford’s peers involved in the support and management of research and innovation. It shares best practice, encourages interdisciplinary activity, and identifies opportunities for engagement and outreach.
2018, September 2 / Interview in La Voz de Galicia, Spanish newspaper, Top 4 in terms of daily readers, ~500,000 print copies, +5.5M online readers, +390k followers in Twitter. Talking about my career and OxRSS.
2018, August 23 / Delivering a master lecture for +40 academic English students in the Oxford University Language Centre, entitled “The measure of the world: the foundations of the SI”.
2018, August 12 / Interview in Faro de Vigo, oldest Spanish newspaper in circulation, +300.000 print copies, 5.6M online readers, +170k followers in Twitter. Talking about my career, the OxRSS, and Brexit.
2018, 30 June – 26 July / Delivering three master lectures for +150 students of grades 8-9 enrolled in The Oxford Prep Experience, a study abroad program housed in Oriel College, University of Oxford.
“My personal and professional paths in R&D”
“The future of on-road transportation”
“The measure of the world: foundations of the SI”
2018, 30 June – 26 July / Organizing and presenting five guest lectures for +150 students of grades 8-9 enrolled in The Oxford Prep Experience, a study abroad program housed in Oriel College, University of Oxford.
“What makes airplanes fly?”, by Dr. Daniel Barba (PDRA, Dep. of Engineering Science, Oxford)
“Personal and professional paths in science and engineering”, by Dr. Jose Abelleira (PDRA, Dep. of Physics, Oxford)
“A brief history of the Universe”, by Sergio Martin (DPhil student, Oxford Centre for Astrophysical Surveys, Oxford)
“Applied fusion: a new generation of nuclear reactors”, by Enrique Ruiz (Senior Mech. Engineer, Tokamak Energy)
“Understanding brain mechanics”, by Dr. Daniel García (PDRA, Dep. of Engineering Science, Oxford)
2018, 30 June – 26 July / Organizing and guiding eight scientific education field trips for +150 students of grades 8-9 enrolled in The Oxford Prep Experience, a study abroad program housed in Oriel College, University of Oxford.
Labs in Dep. of Engineering Science, Oxford
The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
The Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
The Museum of Natural History, Oxford
Most important sundials and the Paris clock, Oxford
Locks and weirs on the river Thames, Oxford
Stonehenge, Salisbury
Science Museum, London
2018, March / Front-page article in the OxRSS Newsletter: “The impact of Brexit on research at Oxford”.
2018, February / Organizing a one-day public meeting for the OxRSS entitled “The Impact of Brexit on Research”, hosted at the University of Oxford, UK.
2017, July 1 – July 29 / Organizing and presenting three guest lectures for +200 students of grade 10-12 enrolled in The Oxford Tradition, a study abroad program housed in Pembroke College, University of Oxford.
“Go big or go home?”, by Enrique Ruiz de Villa (Senior Mech. Engineer, Tokamak Energy)
“Personal and professional paths in science and engineering”, by Dr. Jose Abelleira (PDRA, Dep. of Physics, Oxford)
“The brief history of the Universe”, by Sergio Martin (DPhil, Oxford Centre for Astrophysical Surveys, Oxford)
2017, July 1 – July 29 / Delivering three master lectures for +200 students of grade 10-12 enrolled in The Oxford Tradition, a study abroad program housed in Pembroke College, University of Oxford since 1985.
“My personal and professional paths in R&D”
“The future of on-road transportation”
“The measure of the world: foundations of the SI”
2016-2017, Jun 2016 – Sep 2017 / Organizing for the public the Oxford University’s Curiosity Carnival, part of the European Researchers’ Night 2017, developing and delivering live experiments and demonstrations. Project funded by the European Commission (Project ID: 722615). The event on the 29 Sep 2017 and was a huge festival of Public Engagement with Research across the University’s museums, libraries, and gardens. +40,000 people attended as visitors or online; 9 in 10 reported they had an excellent to good experience; over 90% found the activities interesting and fun and 83% agreed with the statement “I learnt about research”.
2015, September 9 / Finalist of The Falling Walls Lab in Madrid for the talk entitled: "Breaking the Walls of Ecological Vehicles". Falling Walls is a platform for young researchers and innovators to present in 3-min outstanding ideas, research projects and initiatives. All disciplines are welcome.
2015, May 8 / Organising and presenting for the public the guest lecture “The First Electric on the Dakar Rally Raid”. Delivered by Marcos Rupérez, CEO of Quionne, and hosted at Aalborg University, Denmark.
2013, May 31 / Live demonstrations for the public at the closure event of ELBIL, a R&D project led by Aalborg University and supported by The European Regional Development Fund grant number ERDFK-08-0011.
2011, May 9 / Talks for grade 10 students in local schools in Spain entitled “What does an engineer do?”.
CURRENT ACADEMIC & INDUSTRIAL ROLES
• From March 2021, Jorge works in industry as a EV and Battery Expert at CTAG
• In October 2022, he was awarded a Maria Zambrano International Talent Attraction Fellowship at UPC
• In March 2023, he was distinguished with an Honorary Research Fellow association with Imperial College London
• In June 2024, he was elevated to IEEE Senior Member
• He is also a Lead Consultant at Imperial Consultants (ICON)
PREVIOUS ROLES
Previously, Jorge was a fellow of The Faraday Institution, postdoc in Imperial College London (2019-2022) and the University of Oxford (2016-2018), co-chairman of the Oxford Research Staff Society, joint chairman of the IEEE UK and Ireland Education Society, founder member of the Danish Battery Society, and co-founder of an engineering company (Triple Solar).
He was a visiting researcher at RWTH ISEA Aachen, FEUP and INESC TEC, and guest lecturer at the University of Oxford, Imperial College London, Newcastle University, University of Warwick, University of Sfax, University of Vigo, University Carlos III, UPC, Aalborg University, DTI and DTU.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Jorge holds two master’s degrees with good honours, in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vigo, and and Power Electronic and Drives from Aalborg University. He was awarded the PhD in Engineering also from Aalborg in May 2017.
INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES
At CTAG, Jorge is currently supporting the development of multi-million laboratory facilities for EV and battery performance and abuse testing for OEMs and TIER-1.
As consultant, he has co-founded an engineering consulting company, and provided services to OEMs and TIER-1, consultancy firms, funding bodies and policymakers.
ACADEMIC CAREER
• Co-author of +40 peer-reviewed scientific publications (22 as first author), including 16 journal articles and 2 book chapters
• Over 1,000 citations, an h-index of 17, and a h-10 index of 26
• Involved in more than 20 R&D projects with a combined budget over £80M, two as named researcher, and two as PI
• (Co-)supervisor of 2 PhD students, 41 under-/post-graduate students, in 35 research-oriented projects, including 20 final year projects
• Provided more than 600 hours of teaching
• Delivered 3 tutorials in IEEE conferences, 19 keynote lectures, and 16 oral and 10 poster presentations in conferences
• Produced 15 video-lessons for a MOOC on Fundamentals of Batteries organized by the European Institute of Technology (EIT)
SERVICE
He is involved in the scientific community as editor of eTransportation and World Electric Vehicle Journal. He has been the guest editor of two special issues in eTransportation and Energies.
He sits in the technical committee of three IEEE sponsored conferences (IC-REST, VPPC and EVER). He is the currently chairing the regular track in energy storage in VPPC.
Previously, he was the co-chair of IEEE UK & Ireland Education Society Chapter, and the co-chairman of the University of Oxford Research Staff Society (6.000 members), and founder member of the Danish Battery Society.
SELECTED AWARDS
• IEEE Senior Member, US, 2024
• Honorary Research Fellowship, Imperial College London, UK, 2023
• Maria Zambrano International Talent Fellowship, UPC, Spain, 2022
• World Winner Section of IEEE Industrial Engagement Competition, IEEE UK & Ireland Section, US, 2020
• Seminar speaker, IEEE VPPC, Spain, 2020
• Plenary speaker, 6th BMS conf., Germany, 2019
• Plenary speaker, 3rd automobile conf., Germany, 2017
• Seminar speaker, VPPC, France, 2017
• STFC Batteries Early Career, UK, 2017
• Best Special Session, IEEE EVER, Monaco, 2016
• Finalist Falling Walls Lab, Spain, 2015
• Best Paper Award EVs, IEEE EVER, Monaco, 2015
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
2022, February 24 / Interview in the blog of the ICOIIG, the official professional association of Chartered Industrial Engineers in Galicia, Spain. Talking about the engineering labour market in the UK.
2021, March-June / Developing an online training program for The Faraday Institution on electric vehicle safety targeted for first responders and emergency services.
2021, April 22 / Keynote speaker in webinar around electric vehicle safety organized by SEGANOSA targeted for first responders and emergency services.
2020, September 23 / Press article in Science Daily, entitled “Battery fires: Industry and research must work together for safer batteries”, featuring results from a recent research article that I co-authored.
2020, September 23 / Press release in Imperial News, featuring results from a recent research article that I co-authored and published on the 17 August 2020 in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society.
2020, July 26 / Participating and winning Global IEEE Industrial Engagement Competition, a global competition for IEEE Sections to showcase their industry engagement initiatives, such as events, workshops, lectures, events, industry tours, products/services etc.
2018-2019 / Organizing Chapter the delivery of 17 webinars (11 h) for the general public through the IEEE UK and Ireland Education Society, covering engineering topics such as IP management, Internet-of-things, Lean Manufacturing, Cyber Security, Sustainable Innovation Culture, Machine Learning and Deep Learning.
2018, September Issue / Front-page article in the Oxford Research Staff Society (OxRSS) Newsletter, entitled “The OxRSS recommendations regarding Brexit”
2018, September 18 / Guest speaker in the Research and Innovation Support Network (RISN) Conference, delivering a session entitled “A career in research – having career conversations with PDRAs”. RISN is a community of Oxford’s peers involved in the support and management of research and innovation. It shares best practice, encourages interdisciplinary activity, and identifies opportunities for engagement and outreach.
2018, September 2 / Interview in La Voz de Galicia, Spanish newspaper, Top 4 in terms of daily readers, ~500,000 print copies, +5.5M online readers, +390k followers in Twitter. Talking about my career and OxRSS.
2018, August 23 / Delivering a master lecture for +40 academic English students in the Oxford University Language Centre, entitled “The measure of the world: the foundations of the SI”.
2018, August 12 / Interview in Faro de Vigo, oldest Spanish newspaper in circulation, +300.000 print copies, 5.6M online readers, +170k followers in Twitter. Talking about my career, the OxRSS, and Brexit.
2018, 30 June – 26 July / Delivering three master lectures for +150 students of grades 8-9 enrolled in The Oxford Prep Experience, a study abroad program housed in Oriel College, University of Oxford.
“My personal and professional paths in R&D”
“The future of on-road transportation”
“The measure of the world: foundations of the SI”
2018, 30 June – 26 July / Organizing and presenting five guest lectures for +150 students of grades 8-9 enrolled in The Oxford Prep Experience, a study abroad program housed in Oriel College, University of Oxford.
“What makes airplanes fly?”, by Dr. Daniel Barba (PDRA, Dep. of Engineering Science, Oxford)
“Personal and professional paths in science and engineering”, by Dr. Jose Abelleira (PDRA, Dep. of Physics, Oxford)
“A brief history of the Universe”, by Sergio Martin (DPhil student, Oxford Centre for Astrophysical Surveys, Oxford)
“Applied fusion: a new generation of nuclear reactors”, by Enrique Ruiz (Senior Mech. Engineer, Tokamak Energy)
“Understanding brain mechanics”, by Dr. Daniel García (PDRA, Dep. of Engineering Science, Oxford)
2018, 30 June – 26 July / Organizing and guiding eight scientific education field trips for +150 students of grades 8-9 enrolled in The Oxford Prep Experience, a study abroad program housed in Oriel College, University of Oxford.
Labs in Dep. of Engineering Science, Oxford
The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
The Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
The Museum of Natural History, Oxford
Most important sundials and the Paris clock, Oxford
Locks and weirs on the river Thames, Oxford
Stonehenge, Salisbury
Science Museum, London
2018, March / Front-page article in the OxRSS Newsletter: “The impact of Brexit on research at Oxford”.
2018, February / Organizing a one-day public meeting for the OxRSS entitled “The Impact of Brexit on Research”, hosted at the University of Oxford, UK.
2017, July 1 – July 29 / Organizing and presenting three guest lectures for +200 students of grade 10-12 enrolled in The Oxford Tradition, a study abroad program housed in Pembroke College, University of Oxford.
“Go big or go home?”, by Enrique Ruiz de Villa (Senior Mech. Engineer, Tokamak Energy)
“Personal and professional paths in science and engineering”, by Dr. Jose Abelleira (PDRA, Dep. of Physics, Oxford)
“The brief history of the Universe”, by Sergio Martin (DPhil, Oxford Centre for Astrophysical Surveys, Oxford)
2017, July 1 – July 29 / Delivering three master lectures for +200 students of grade 10-12 enrolled in The Oxford Tradition, a study abroad program housed in Pembroke College, University of Oxford since 1985.
“My personal and professional paths in R&D”
“The future of on-road transportation”
“The measure of the world: foundations of the SI”
2016-2017, Jun 2016 – Sep 2017 / Organizing for the public the Oxford University’s Curiosity Carnival, part of the European Researchers’ Night 2017, developing and delivering live experiments and demonstrations. Project funded by the European Commission (Project ID: 722615). The event on the 29 Sep 2017 and was a huge festival of Public Engagement with Research across the University’s museums, libraries, and gardens. +40,000 people attended as visitors or online; 9 in 10 reported they had an excellent to good experience; over 90% found the activities interesting and fun and 83% agreed with the statement “I learnt about research”.
2015, September 9 / Finalist of The Falling Walls Lab in Madrid for the talk entitled: "Breaking the Walls of Ecological Vehicles". Falling Walls is a platform for young researchers and innovators to present in 3-min outstanding ideas, research projects and initiatives. All disciplines are welcome.
2015, May 8 / Organising and presenting for the public the guest lecture “The First Electric on the Dakar Rally Raid”. Delivered by Marcos Rupérez, CEO of Quionne, and hosted at Aalborg University, Denmark.
2013, May 31 / Live demonstrations for the public at the closure event of ELBIL, a R&D project led by Aalborg University and supported by The European Regional Development Fund grant number ERDFK-08-0011.
2011, May 9 / Talks for grade 10 students in local schools in Spain entitled “What does an engineer do?”.
FACULTY
- Faculty of Engineering
POSITION NAME
- Honorary Research Fellow