Andromachi Athanasopoulou, MBA, MSC, DPHIL, FHEA

Dr Athanasopoulou is Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London and Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Andromachi was previously a research fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University and, before that, a junior research fellow at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford.

Andromachi has expertise in qualitative research on leadership and leadership development as well as business ethics and corporate social responsibility. She sits on the editorial review board of the Academy of Management Learning & Education and the Journal of Change Management. Andromachi has received several scholarships, grants and awards, including awards from the Academy of Management and the British Academy of Management. She has extensive teaching experience at undergraduate, postgraduate and executive education levels and she is a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Andromachi holds an MBA, an MSc in Management Research, and a DPhil in Management Studies, all from Saïd Business School. She also holds an undergraduate degree in business administration from the Athens University of Economics and Business. Andromachi is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Anthony Gardner, Phd

Dr Anthony Gardner is Head of the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford, where he is an Associate Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory and a Fellow of The Queen’s College. Before moving to Oxford in 2012, Dr Gardner was an Andrew Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, working with Boris Groys and Sarah Wilson (2010–2011), and an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne (2011–2012).

His research explores the fascinating intersections of contemporary art and politics, with particular emphasis on installation, performance, exhibitions and cultural infrastructures, especially in parts of the world beyond the North Atlantic region. His books include Mapping South: Journeys in South-South Cultural Relations (Melbourne, 2013), Politically Unbecoming: Postsocialist Art Against Democracy (MIT Press, 2015) and, also through MIT Press in 2015, the anthology Neue Slowenische Kunst: From Kapital To Capital (with Zdenka Badovinac and Eda Čufer), which was a finalist for the 2017 Alfred H Barr Award for best exhibition catalogue worldwide. The exhibition it accompanied travelled from the Moderna Galerija in Ljubljana to the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow and the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid. Dr Gardner's latest book, co-written with Charles Green, is Biennials, Triennials and Documenta: The Exhibitions That Created Contemporary Art, published by Wiley-Blackwell in summer 2016.

Kelly Hunter, MBE

Kelly Hunter is a British film, television, radio, stage, and musical actress, a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) the Royal National Theatre and Vesturport. She is a Laurence Olivier Award nominee, Radio Academy Award, and TMA Awards winner. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Flute Theatre, a company which produces the works of William Shakespeare for inclusive audiences.

For Flute Theatre she has created Hamlet, Twelfth Night, The Tempest for children with autism and A Midsummer NIght's Dream for people with autism and their families. In Spring 2019 she created Perikles for people with autism at Folkteatern Gavleborg in Sweden. Flute Theatre's productions tour internationally.

Hunter first began working with children with autism in 2002, when she set up her own company, Touchstone Shakespeare Theatre, to work with children, some with autism, who had little if any access to the Arts. Through this work she created and developed The Hunter Heartbeat Method, (HHB) a distinctive methodology which uses Shakespeare's rhythmic language and physical gesture to release communicative blocks within people with all levels of autism, including those who are non-verbal. She is working with the UCL neuroscience lab who are using the HHB to begin researching the neuroscience of the imagination.

Harvey Whitehouse, PHD

Professor Harvey Whitehouse is Director of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology and professorial fellow of Magdalen College at the University of Oxford. He received his B.A. degree in social anthropology from the London School of Economics in 1985. He completed his PhD in Anthropology at the University of Cambridge in 1990.

Professor Whitehouse is generally regarded as one of the founders of the cognitive science of religion field. He is well known for his theory of ‘modes of religiosity’, which explains how the frequency and emotional intensity of collective rituals influence the scale and structure of religious organisations. In recent years, his work has expanded beyond religion to examine the role of rituals of all kinds in binding groups together and motivating inter-group competition, including warfare and extreme self-sacrifice. Professor Whitehouse is also a founding director of Seshat: Global History Databank, a large, international, multidisciplinary team of evolutionary scientists, historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, economists, and other social scientists. Seshat's mission is to gather information from historical societies in order to rigorously test different hypotheses about the rise and fall of large-scale societies across the globe and throughout human history.

Alexandre Caldas, MSC, PHD

Professor Caldas is the Chief of Country Outreach, Technology and Innovation Branch at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) a Director position within the United Nations Organisation (UN), and a Professor of Science and Technology Policy. He was a Faculty Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute from April 2004 up until October 2005, and has become a Research Associate of the OII since 2006. He is an economist and completed his PhD in Science and Technology Policy Studies at SPRU, University of Sussex (2004). His dissertation employed webmetric analyses alongside other methodological approaches to examine the structure of collaborative networks in the sciences. He completed his Master’s with distinction in Economics and Management of Science and Technology at the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal (1997).

He has also served as International Advisor for the Foundation for Science and Technology, European Union and African Union (2013-2016), as Administrator Head of Unit at the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (2012-2013), as Director of eGovernment (2006–2011) in the Portuguese Prime Minister’s Office, as Executive Director of the Science and Technology Park, Abrantes, Portugal, as Coordinator of the Regional Internet Project, Ribatejo Digital, Portugal (2002–2004), and ICT Coordinator for the Science and Technology Foundation at the Portuguese Ministry of Science and Technology (1994-2000).

His research interests include e-science, networks, digital knowledge bases, digital identity, internet policy, as well as history of science and technology.

Daniel BultE, PhD, PGDipLaTHE, SFHEA

Professor Bulte is an MRI physicist and an Associate Professor in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. He is based at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and has worked at the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) for over 10 years, and the University of Toronto before that. He obtained a PhD in Electrical Engineering and a BSc in Physics from the University of Tasmania in Australia. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and has a Postgraduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education from Oxford University. He is passionate about teaching and outreach and has won numerous awards for his teaching. His research interests are focussed on imaging and measuring oxygen delivery and metabolism in healthy and diseased tissue using a variety of techniques including Oxygen Enhanced MRI, Arterial Spin Labelling, T1, T2 and T2* mapping, and diffusion imaging. He is particularly interested in imaging hypoxia in tumours and neuroimaging.

Simon Bucknall, MA

Simon Bucknall is an Adjunct Faculty Member at the University of Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government and a Visiting Fellow in Professional Skills at Cambridge University's Department of Engineering. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford and the London School of Oriental & African Studies. Based in London UK, Simon is an international award-winning speaker, coach and facilitator, helping ambitious leaders and professionals to achieve greater impact through spoken word. In 2017, Simon represented Europe in the Final of the World Championship of Public Speaking in Vancouver, Canada, placing 2nd out of 30,000+ competing speakers worldwide.

Since turning full-time as a public speaking expert in 2008, Simon has helped thousands of people from all walks of life across the globe. Clients include General Electric, DPD, HgCapital, Oxford University's Said Business School, Cambridge University's Laing O'Rourke Centre for Construction Engineering & Technology, the Royal Academy of Engineering and London Business School. Simon's career began in executive headhunting with Russell Reynolds Associates. He has also worked in corporate brand strategy consulting and in the House of Commons as Head of Office for a senior Parliamentarian.

Edward Miller, MBBS, MSc

Dr Edward Miller is a medical doctor. He graduated with an MBBS from the University of Adelaide, Australia in 2014, and received the HK Fry memorial prize for excellence in psychological medicine. Since then he has completed a Masters of Science (Research) in Psychiatry at the University of Oxford (2016–2019) with research into the effects of mindfulness-informed school-based mental health curricula. He is also currently training to be a child psychiatrist within the NHS. His areas of interest include mindfulness, mental health, and school-based mental health programmes.

Anshul Raja, BENG

Anshul Raja is a TEDx speaker, author of two #1 best-selling books and the founder of Academic Underdogs. He and his team have one goal—to transform average performers into outstanding achievers. Over the span of three years, Academic Underdog’s educational products have already improved the lives of over 50,000 students in the UK.

Anshul’s background is in proprietary systems trading with a specialisation in fixed income and equity index futures. He began his career within investment banking operations at Goldman Sachs and has since gained a variety of experience across the financial services industry. He holds a Bachelors of Engineering, graduating with first class honours from University College London, and is accredited on the Dean’s List for academic excellence.

Sarujan Ranjan, MBBS

Sarujan is a medical doctor who is passionate about innovation within healthcare. He has worked in a variety of specialities including Acute medicine, Accident & Emergency, psychiatry, endocrinology, geriatric medicine, general surgery and obstetrics & gynaecology. During his time working in the hospital he has dedicated himself to projects to improve efficiency and clinical care. Outside of the clinical environment, Sarujan has co-founded businesses in both medical education and events. He aims to combine his understanding of medicine and business to drive real change in healthcare through innovation. He is a member of the NHS Clinical Entrepreneurs Programme.

Tianyou Xu, DPhil

Tianyou, or ‘Ti’ for short, is a physicist with a passion for digital health. He is a New Jersey native, who received his Bachelors in Physics from New York University, studying there between 2008–2013. He was an Clarendon Scholar while he pursued a DPhil in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Physics at the University of Oxford between 2013–2017. He is currently an Oxford Biodesign Healthcare Innovations Fellow. In particular, he has a keen interest in digital health technologies and venture capital.
 

Erfan Soliman, DPhil, FHEA

Erfan completed his DPhil in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, with a focus on the development of a muscle-neuron synapse model for applications in neuromuscular disease research. Before coming to Oxford, he completed his BSc in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Harvard University, with a thesis on conductive, bio-compatible composites for axonal regeneration.

He specialises in engineered solutions for biomedical applications. His current interests lie in the development of technology to address problems in healthcare. He is a stipendiary lecturer at Somerville College and a researcher in the Natural Interactions Lab, working on the establishment of an Institute for Needs-Led Innovation. As a former MPLS Enterprise Fellow, he is also working on the creation of a programme called Enterprise Process Labs, supporting graduate students and early career researchers in the establishment of translational projects and spin-out companies.

Anna Perdrix Rosell, MSc

Anna is a co-founder of Sixfold Bioscience, a YCombinator and venture-backed startup at the forefront of developing an RNA nanoparticle-based therapeutic delivery platform. They are working on delivering gene and cell therapies in vivo with the aim of reducing the high cost and scalability issues that this technologies currently have. She has a PhD in cancer research from the Francis Crick Institute in London and an MRes in Translational Cancer Medicine from King’s College London. In 2018 she was recognised by Forbes (30 under 30) as one of the young European disruptors in science and healthcare.
 

Wenchuan Wu, DPhil

Wenchuan is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (NDCN) at the University of Oxford. Previously, he obtained his DPhil in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Physics at the University of Oxford, a Masters degree in Biomedical Engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing. His work involves developing novel methods for acquiring, reconstructing and analysing MRI images. His most recent work, which is based on machine learning techniques, won a top prize at the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine in May 2018. Wenchuan is also a graduate tutor at the NDCN covering cutting edge technologies in MRI.

Gemma Prata, MSc, DPhil

Gemma is Co-Founder and Director at AIRES Tech, a company providing remote sensing solutions for a wide range of environmental applications, including aviation hazards, emissions monitoring and thermal sensing. She recently completed her DPhil in Volcanology at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, and prior to this, a research Masters in Volcanology at Monash University in Melbourne. Her work focuses on understanding the composition of atmospheric volcanic ash and how this influences its optical properties in order to better detect and quantify the hazard posed by ash clouds using remote sensing techniques. She is also passionate about education and encouraging young students, particularly girls, to pursue studies in STEM subjects.

Piers Milner, MEng, PhD

Piers is a biomedical engineer. He undertook a PhD in the Biomechanics Group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Imperial College London. During this time he worked with leading orthopaedic surgeons, multinational medtech companies and medtech start-ups. Prior to this he studied Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering (MEng) at Imperial College London, where he was awarded the Bessemer Medal for placing top of his cohort. His interests lie in translational medtech design and research.

Robert Watt, BPhil, DPhil

Rob Watt is an Unestablished Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on the metaphysics and epistemology of Immanuel Kant, but he teaches widely in ethics, political philosophy, and the history of philosophy. His papers have appeared in journals such as History of Philosophy Quarterly, Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, and the European Journal of Philosophy. Before moving to Cambridge he spent twelve years in Oxford. He took his first degree at Magdalen College, and then did his graduate work at Balliol College, with a doctoral thesis on Kant's Transcendental Deduction of the Categories. He then spent four years as a Junior Research Fellow in Philosophy at Christ Church. He is currently working on the meaning of Kant's transcendental idealism, as well as Kant's contributions to mereology, i.e. the study of parts and wholes.

Cécile Varry, MA

Cécile is a doctoral student at the Université Paris Diderot, where she also lectures on English Literature. Her research focuses on the poetry of T.S. Eliot, and more generally on the role of emotion in modernist poetry. She also teaches various English classes for high school students trying to get into selective universities in France or in the UK. Before starting her doctorate she was French Lectrice at Christ Church, Oxford (2014–15), and then Lecturer in French at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford (2015–16). She took her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France), where she passed the ‘agrégation’, a highly competitive state examination for teachers in higher education.

Mikesh Udani, MSc

Mikesh is a recent MSc in Computer Science from University of Oxford. Before coming to Oxford, he completed his undergraduate and masters degrees in Mathematics and Computing and worked with Deutsche Bank for 3 years in their Fixed Income Derivatives Trading team. He specialises in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and has worked on a variety of applications of machine learning in audio and speech data. At Deutsche Bank he performed quantitative risk analysis on portfolios of financial products and lead IT and infrastructure projects for the team. Mikesh's current interests are in applications of technology to solve problems in healthcare. His recent work was on risk stratification and drug design for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy using machine learning. Mikesh was a Oxford Biodesign Healthcare Innovation Fellow 2016–2017. In 2017, he co-founded an Oxford spin-out BreatheOx.

Nirmesh Patel, MSc

Nirmesh Patel is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Cambridge Cancer Genomics, a smart genomics company using liquid biopsies to better guide cancer therapy choice and offer truly personalised medicine. Trained as a biomedical scientist at King’s College London, he has 10 years of experience in oncology research and is currently a PhD candidate in Translational Cancer Medicine, using data science and bioinformatics to identify novel targets in breast cancer and biomarkers to predict patient response. He has always sat at the interface between laboratory research, data science and the clinic and is unifying the three fields with a mission to improve cancer patient treatment.

Gillian Bolsover, DPhil

Gillian is a lecturer in Politics and Media at the University of Leeds as well as a Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII). She researches the effects of commercialisation, globalisation and new media and communication technologies on politics and civil society. She completed a DPhil at the OII in January 2017, researching how the effects of the commercialisation of online spaces affect their ability to provide a venue for political speech in different political systems through a comparison of the US and China. Between January 2017 and January 2018, she worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher on the computational propaganda project, investigating bots, algorithms, misinformation and other forms of automated online political opinion manipulation. Her research interests include: political and social theory, political economy, civil society and citizenship, digital social research, computational social science, sociology and culture, as well as identity and psychology.