- Date
- 21st June 2024
- Categories
- Announcement, General
Dr Simon Batchelor, Director of Gamos Ltd., a Visiting Research Fellow at Loughborough University and Research Coordinator for the UKAid funded Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme, has been recognised with an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for his exceptional service internationally in His Majesty The King’s Birthday Honours List.
Dr Batchelor is being celebrated for his exceptional contributions to international development and innovation and his extensive work in social mobilization programs (for example in Cambodia during the 1990s). In the early 2000s, his firm Gamos Limited conducted UK Aid-funded research that laid the groundwork for realising the potential for mobile money development in Africa and Asia, which he led to fruition over the ensuing decade. Since 2012, Dr Batchelor has shifted his focus on to renewable energy, discovering new opportunities and strategies to address the ongoing challenges of clean energy access. Most recently, these efforts have focused around his work co-leading the Loughborough-based MECS programme which since 2018 has been pioneering low-cost electric cooking solutions for the billions of people worldwide who still lack access to clean cooking.
Over 4 decades, Dr Batchelor’s imaginative and often unconventional thinking has led to the creation of transformative solutions for key challenges faced by impoverished communities across the developing world. Through his research, policy influence, and community action, he has driven multiple initiatives that have significantly improved the prospects of some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
On the occasion of Simon’s recognition, we also heard from Professor Ed Brown, MECS Programme Research Director who said: “Working with Simon so closely over the past ten years has been a massive privilege. I have learnt so much from him about how to build collaborations that can combine good quality innovative research with direct real-world interventions that have world-changing impacts. Simon has affected millions of lives for the better over the years and I am very proud to be his colleague and his friend”.
Featured Image Credit: Dr Simon Batchelor, 2024.