Esat Alpay is a Senior Lecturer in Engineering Education, supporting, developing and leading various teaching initiatives across the Faculty of Engineering. He received his BSc (Hons) degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Surrey, and his PhD from the University of Cambridge. He also holds an MA degree in the Psychology of Education (with distinction) from the Institute of Education, University of London. He is "certified" in many ways, including Belbin (team roles), Myers-Briggs (personality types) and CELTA (English teaching to Adults). He also has counselling experience through ChildLine.

He has wide interests in the educational support and skills development of undergraduate and postgraduate students. He is currently responsible for ethics education in several engineering departments, the training of Graduate Teaching Assistants and overseeing the teacher training procedures and requirements of Probationary Lecturers in the Faculty of Engineering. Some of his other research and professional interests include: the development and evaluation of student professional skills, threshold concepts in engineering, peer assessment and peer-based learning and biomimetics in engineering design. He has particular interests in the application of psychology to facilitate student learning and personal development.

He is on the Editorial Board of the European Journal of Engineering Education, and is keen on promoting scholarly activity in engineering education practice.  In 2010, he was appointed as an Associate of the Engineering Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy.

His past scientific research activities (Department of Chemical Engineering) have included studies in adsorption processes, hybrid reactors and polymerisation processes. His past work has also led to the development and set-up of the award-winning "Research Skills Development" course for early-career researchers, as well as a number of workshops relating to personal effectiveness and communication and presentation skills.