The Public Engagement Advisory Group was set up to provide strategic academic oversight of public engagement at the University. The group consists of academic champions from each of the six Schools, nominated by their Head of School, and is chaired by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research. 

 

Chair: Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith FRS FMedSci

Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith behind a bookshelf filled with books

Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and International Partnerships at the University of Cambridge. She is the Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics, President of the Genetics Society and a member of the UKRI BBSRC Council. She is a Fellow of Darwin College.

Professor Ferguson-Smith is a mammalian developmental geneticist and epigeneticist. Her team studies the epigenetic control of genome function with particular emphasis on epigenetic inheritance and she is an expert on genomic imprinting. Her research group is made up of both experimental and computational scientists and her work takes interdisciplinary approaches to consider stem cells and the epigenetic programme, functional genomics and epigenomics, and the interaction between the environment and the genome in health and disease within and across generations.

 

She was elected to EMBO in 2006, to the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the Society of Biology in 2012, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2017. She has received several awards; most recently in 2021 she was recipient of the Royal Society's Buchanan Medal and the Society for Reproduction and Fertility's Anne McLaren Distinguished Scientist Award.

 

Professor Ferguson-Smith became the Chair of our Advisory Group following the death of Professor Chris Abell in October 2020. Professor Abell, a biological chemist, was a pioneer in the field of fragment-based drug discovery, a successful entrepreneur, a founding director of Cambridge Enterprise, and the University’s first Director of Postdoctoral Affairs. Chris was such a strong advocate for public engagement at Cambridge, we greatly miss his advice and support.

 

School and academic leads

School of Arts and Humanities

Academic lead - Dr David Trippet

Dr David Trippet is a musicologist and cultural historian. Before coming to Cambridge, he was Reader at the University of Bristol, and has taught at King’s College London and Cambridge itself. His research focuses on nineteenth-century intellectual history, Richard Wagner, and the philosophy of technology. Other interests include Franz Liszt and post-Classical Weimar, performance theory and the grey area between improvisation and composition, as well as post-humanism and musical creativity in the digital age.

Faculty of Music
Email: djt31@cam.ac.uk

 

 

Postdoctoral representative - Dr Vanessa Paloma Elbaz, Faculty of Music
 

School of Biological Sciences

Academic lead - Dr Hélène Doerflinger

Hélène Doerflinger is a biologist working on cell polarity at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK – Gurdon Institute. She has also always been interested in generating links between the public and scientists and after obtaining a Diploma in Science Communication (Birkbeck, London), she has been developing the Gurdon Institute’s Public Engagement programme. She is now a Research Associate in Daniel St Johnston’s group and the Public Engagement Coordinator for the Gurdon Institute.

The Gurdon Institute / Department of Genetics
Email: hd225@hermes.cam.ac.uk

 

 

 

Postdoctoral representative - Dr James Roy, MRC Toxicology Unit

 

School of Clinical Medicine

Academic lead - Prof Giles Yeo

 

Giles Yeo got his PhD in molecular genetics from the University of Cambridge in 1998, after which he joined the lab of Prof Sir Stephen O’Rahilly, working on the genetics of severe human obesity.  Giles Yeo is now a Professor of Molecular Neuroendocrinology and programme leader at the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit in Cambridge and his research currently focuses on the influence of genes on feeding behaviour & body-weight. In addition, he is a graduate tutor and fellow of Wolfson College, and Honorary President of the British Dietetic Association. Giles is also a broadcaster and author, presenting science documentaries for the BBC, and hosts a podcast called ‘Dr Giles Yeo Chews The Fat’. His first book ‘Gene Eating’ was published in December 2018, and his second book ‘Why Calories Don’t Count’ came out in June 2021. Giles was appointed an MBE in the Queen’s 2020 birthday honours for services to ‘Research, Communication and Engagement’. He won the Society for Endocrinology Medal in 2022.

Department of Clinical Biochemistry

Email: gshy2@cam.ac.uk

 

 

Postdoctoral representative - position vacant

 

School of Technology

Academic lead - Dr Ljiljana Fruk

Ljiljana is a chemist working in the interdisciplinary fields of new (bio)materials design, light triggered chemistry and nano-structuring. She has been involved in public engagement since her studies in Zagreb, and is a curator of science-inspired and art-driven exhibitions such as Future is Here (part of ExoEvolution, Globale 2015) at the internationally renowned Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany). She has co-authored several books including Molecular Aesthetics (MIT Press, 2013), with artist Peter Webel, and 3D Molecules that changed the World, with Bernd Lintermann (Karlsruhe) which accompanied an installation shown in several venues throughout Europe. In 2016 Ljiljana and Bernd launched Molecules App to be used as a chemistry teaching tool. Ljiljana has also done a series of popular science lectures and radio shows in Germany, Croatia and the UK and is continuously hosting artists from all over the world in her lab. Her most recent project involved designing "Molecular Chocolates" featuring 3D structure of selected molecules printed onto appropriately flavoured high quality chocolate, to inspire all chocolate fans to immerse themselves in the world of molecules.                                                         

Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
Email: lf389@cam.ac.uk

 

 

Postdoctoral representative - Dr Niamh Fox, Department of Engineering

Niamh is a chemist and materials scientist turned engineer examining how manufacturing processes alter material performance. Based at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), Niamh currently works on the manufacturing theme of the EPSRC Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC) in Targeted Delivery for Hard-to-Treat Cancers. This work develops standardised testing methods to underpin the transfer of new devices, designed for cancer treatment, from the lab into a user setting. Niamh is constantly involved in outreach activities and is currently the Sharman Outreach Fellow at the IfM. Niamh is passionate about showing school children all the possibilities and varied careers offered by science and engineering. She has spoken in many schools and as part of the Cambridge Festival and Science Festival Ireland. In 2017 she helped develop and deliver a Royal Academy of Engineering primary school outreach programme called ‘How stuff gets made’ and has produced colouring books and activity worksheets based on the research at the IfM for primary school-aged children.Niamh is a chemist and materials scientist turned engineer examining how manufacturing processes alter material performance. Based at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), Niamh currently works on the manufacturing theme of the EPSRC Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC) in Targeted Delivery for Hard-to-Treat Cancers. This work develops standardised testing methods to underpin the transfer of new devices, designed for cancer treatment, from the lab into a user setting. Niamh is constantly involved in outreach activities and is currently the Sharman Outreach Fellow at the IfM. Niamh is passionate about showing school children all the possibilities and varied careers offered by science and engineering. She has spoken in many schools and as part of the Cambridge Festival and Science Festival Ireland. In 2017 she helped develop and deliver a Royal Academy of Engineering primary school outreach programme called ‘How stuff gets made’ and has produced colouring books and activity worksheets based on the research at the IfM for primary school-aged children.

Department of Engineering
Email: ndwf2@cam.ac.uk

 

School of the Physical Sciences

Academic lead - Dr Steven Lee

Postdoctoral representative - Dr Harry Cliff

Dr Harry Cliff is a particle physicist working on the LHCb experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), where he searches for evidence of new particles and forces that may help address some the big unsolved problems in fundamental physics, such as the nature of dark matter and why the universe is dominated by matter but not antimatter. His research focuses on making precise measurements of exotic particles called beauty quarks, which are produced in large numbers by collisions at the LHC. He is an active science communicator, having held a joint fellowship from 2012 to 2018 between the Cavendish Laboratory and the Science Museum in London, where he curated two major exhibitions on physics and astronomy (Collider, 2013 and The Sun, 2018). He has given numerous public lectures on physics, including at TED and the Royal Insitution and is currently writing his first popular science book.

Department of Physics
Email: cliff@hep.phy.cam.ac.uk

 

 

School of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Academic lead - Dr Stuart Hogarth. Department of Sociology
Postdoctoral representative - Dr Adam Green, Department of Archaeology

 

Professional leads

Dr Louise Atkins - Head of Impact and Knowledge Exchange

Dr Hannah Price - University of Cambridge Museums

Dr Lucinda Spokes - Head of Public Engagement

Dr Lucinda Spokes is Head of Public Engagement. During her research career she developed a real enthusiasm for sharing research more widely. She moved into science outreach as part of an EU funded education project and then to the education charity STEM Team East. At STEM Team, East Lucinda promoted and delivered STEM enrichment and engagement education throughout Cambridgeshire and East Anglia. As part of this role, she developed activities for the University of Cambridge Science Festival. This led to a position as Cambridge Science Festival Manager. After eight fabulous festivals, Lucinda now heads up the Public Engagement Team. She oversees the Festival and helps support researchers and the public to engage collaboratively, effectively and enjoyably with each other, sharing information, ideas and inspiration.

Email: lucinda.spokes@admin.cam.ac.uk

Dr Diogo Gomes - Public Engagement and Communications Manager (Clinical Medicine and Biological Sciences)

Dr Diogo Martins Gomes is the Public Engagement Coordinator for the School of Clinical Medicine and Biological Sciences at the University of Cambridge. With a PhD that focused on the partnerships between Science Education and Public Engagement Diogo is very keen on Public Engagement as an academic research field. Diogo is responsible for developing strategies and practices as to embed a culture of excellence in public engagement with relevant areas of research at the University. Diogo also leads on the Pubic Engagement network in both Schools of PE Practitioners and manages, develops and delivers associated training provision in public engagement for both research and support staff.

Email: dam74@medschl.cam.ac.uk

Dr Selen Etingu - Public Engagement and Impact Manager (Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) 

Email: selen.etingu@admin.cam.ac.uk

 

 

 

Former members

Biological Sciences
Professor Andrea Brand FRS FMedSci (2015/2016)

Clinical Medicine
Professor Gillian Griffths FRS (2015/2016)
Professor Robin Franklin FMedSci (2016/2017)

Physical Sciences
Professor Gerry Gilmore

Technology
Dr Hugh Hunt (2015/2016)

Arts and Humanities
Professor Christopher Young (2015/2016)
Dr Sarah Dillion (2016/2017)
Dr Andy Martin (2017/2018)

Humanities and Social Sciences
Professor Pauline Ros
Professor Chris Bickerton

University of Cambridge Museum
Dr Liz Hide
Jo McPhee