The following scientists were involved:
Mihaela van der Schaar, Man Professor, Department of Engineering Science, Oxford, Fellow of Christ Church College, Faculty Fellow, Alan Turing Institute
Mihaela van der Schaar is Man Professor in Oxford Man Institute of Quantitative Finance (OMI) and the Department of Engineering Science at Oxford, Fellow of Christ Church College and Faculty Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, London. Mihaela is an IEEE Fellow (2009) and received numerous awards including an NSF Career Award (2004), three IBM Faculty Awards, and several best paper awards. She holds 33 US patents. Mihaela's current research interests and expertise are in machine learning, data science and decisions for a better planet. In particular, she is interested in developing novel machine learning and data science methods for medicine and personalized education. Her past research spans multimedia, communication networks, signal processing, game theory and network science
Dr John L Collins – Disruptive Technologist, Commercial Director, SynbiCITE, Imperial College
John is Commercial Director of the UK National Centre for commercialising Engineering Biology based at Imperial College London, SynbiCITE (www.synbicite.com). SynbiCITE is tasked with growing industry based on using the engineering of biology to ‘do useful things and make useful stuff to heal us, feed us and fuels us’. John helps turn ‘upstarts into start-ups and start-ups to become grown ups’ through business incubation and acceleration programmes designed specifically for SynbiCITE
Prior to this John has had a varied portfolio career including R&D, product development, technical sales, business development, international development for a trade association, innovation and digital creativity growth and in educational services. Throughout his careers John has run his own ‘Disruptive Technologies and Innovations Management’ consultancy – Innovation Foundry Ltd. – and continues to work with a diverse spread of technologies,
Sophie Scott, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, who studies the science of laughter
Sophie Scott is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. Her research investigates the cognitive neuroscience of voices, speech and laughter particularly speech perception, speech production, vocal emotions and human communication. She also serves as Deputy Director of UCL's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. She is a member of the British Psychological Society, the Society for Neuroscience, the cognitive Neuroscience Society and the Experimental Psychology Society. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2012 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2016.
Scott is known for her public engagement work, including performing stand-up comedy, appearing in the BBC Radio Four programme The Life Scientific, and giving a talk at the Royal Institution on the science of laughter. Her work on laughter has also toured science fairs and exhibitions as part of the Laughter lab project. She has been awarded a UCL Provost's Award for Public engagement, and presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 2017 entitled The Language of Life which explored the topic of communication
Waseem Qasim, Professor of Cell and Gene Therapy, National Institute of Health Research, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
Waseem Qasim is an Immunologist and NIHR Professor of Cell and Gene therapy at the UCL Institute of Child Health and a consultant Immunologist at Great Ormond Street hospital for children in London. He trained in Medicine and specialised in Paediatrics before developing a specialist interest in immune disorders and their correction by bone marrow transplantation. After PhD research at UCL, he combined hospital work with gene therapy research and is now leading translation of basic science through to the development of new treatments and ‘first-in-human’ trials. His group is using molecular tools to ‘edit’ the human genome with reagents called TALENs and CRISPR. Their application, alongside disabled viruses, is being used to harness the power of human immunity. In 2015 they were the first to deploy gene-edited T cells to successfully treat infants with leukaemia and are now testing similar approaches in clinical trials.
Phoebe Tickell, Imperial College Synthetic Biology Accelerator SinbiCITE, systems designer and social entrepreneur
Phoebe Tickell is a renegade scientist, systems designer and social entrepreneur, motivated by a passion for creating transformation of people, society and planet. She has co-founded and been involved in projects in re-imagining and democratising education, learning and mindfulness coaching, and most recently hacking the food system to connect farmers directly to people, retailers and technology. In her work she tries to combine head, heart and hands. She is a scientist by training and remains fascinated by technology and how best we can get technology and science to best serve humanity. Her main occupation has been as a Researcher of Synthetic Biology at Imperial College London, creating solutions to an unsustainable world in the form of cell bio-factories. When not in the lab, she has used her passion for transformation and innovation to run projects, reimagining the areas of science, society and education. Most recently: Future Farm Lab, 225 Academy, The IO Collective. She is a proud member of the Enspiral network, where she currently plays the role of Contributor. Phoebe studied natural sciences at Cambridge University.
Dr Daniel Glaser (Chair). Neuroscientist, Director, Science Gallery London, King's College London, Journalist, Broadcaster
Dr Daniel Glaser is a neuroscientist who has worked for many years promoting public engagement with science. He is Director of Science Gallery London at King's College London, a space where art and science collide. He was previously Head of Engaging Science at the Wellcome Trust. Daniel’s scientific background involves the use of fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to examine how experience, prejudice and expectation alter the way we see the world. He comes from an unusual academic background having studied maths and then English literature at Cambridge, doing a masters in cognitive science at Sussex University, and graduate work in neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute in Israel and postdoctoral work at UCL. He was the world's first scientist in residence at an arts institution at the ICA in 2002 and was the first scientist to judge the Man Booker prize in 2014. He writes a weekly column in the Observer Magazine and has contributed to a range of TV and radio programmes, including a BBC television series on how science really works.