Breakout Session I
Topics:
1) Thriving, Not Just Surviving: Time and Project Management for Researchers
2) Faith Under Fire: Handling Hostility or Indifference in Secular Spaces
3) Has Science killed God?

Breakout sessions II
Topics:
1) Building Community and Accountability in Research Life
2) Dealing with Loneliness, Isolation, and Burnout in Research
3) Is Academia My Calling? Discernment and the Postgraduate Journey – Discerning God’s Will

Professor George Grimble

Professor George Grimble graduated from UCL in 1972 with BSc in Biochemistry and from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine with a PhD in Biochemistry and Nutrition. His long and varied career included many years of research in Gastroenterology and Nutrition at St Mark’s Hospital and at Central Middlesex Hospital where he directed laboratory research.

Subsequently, he worked at Roehampton, London Metropolitan and Reading Universities and, finally at UCL in the Division of Medicine. He has specialised in the dark side of nutrition in relation to gastroenterology, to intensive care, to ageing and to societal disease-related malnutrition. George co-authored numerous papers and reviews and is co-editor of 6 books.

He started the first MSc in Clinical Nutrition in Europe in 1994 and two MSc Nutrition programmes and a BSc in Nutrition and Medical Sciences at UCL. This established Nutrition as a cognate area at UCL. In all, over 2,000 MSc students have enrolled in these programmes.

He holds two patents as former director of Helix Biotechnology, a SME biotech company based at UCL. His most recent research was into the causes and consequences of food poverty in the UK. Since retiring for the second time in 2021, George has been Emeritus Professor of Medicine at UCL and actively teaches there and around the world.

Richard Gunton

My main expertise is in applied statistics and data science, but I also have a background in ecology, and strong interests in philosophy, particularly the Reformational philosophy of the Amsterdam school. 

My PhD was in plant ecology (University of Leeds, 2007), and I subsequently did a range of postdoctoral projects in ecology and environmental policy evaluation. I then did research in industry for nearly two years before becoming a lecturer.

Richard Buggs

Academic Bio: Pending

Dr Karis Riley

She works in the field of Medieval and Renaissance Literature. She holds a BA in philosophy, a Master’s in Classics, and a PhD in English Literature and Language, and Karis is married to Malcolm and together they founded Trinity Church Central London (TCCL) in 2014. They have two daughters and love life in the city of London.

Prof Andy McIntosh

Prof. Andy McIntosh holds an Emeritus chair in Thermodynamics at the University of Leeds and is also an adjunct professor of Engineering at Liberty University in Virginia. His scientific research career concerns mathematics, combustion and aeronautics, both in academia and in a government establishment, and he is the author of over 200 academic papers.

Andy is also the co-inventor of the 𝜇Mist novel spray technology which copies the bombardier beetle spray system and has led to this spray technology being applied to fuel-additive injectors. Other possible applications include pharmaceutical sprays, aerosols and work is proceeding on fire sprinkler systems.

This research was awarded the 2010 Times Higher Educational award for the Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology. Andy is also investigating the fundamental link between thermodynamics and information, relevant to the debate on abiogenesis – the information in living systems is neither matter nor energy but is absolutely essential for life. He is now actively researching the specific energy pathways involved in biochemical systems engineering.

Ruth Norris

I taught music for a few years, before working in leadership and ministry teams in Basingstoke Community Churches, including having responsibility for evangelism training and leading a town-wide schools/youth outreach team.

I also led an annual team to Sweden, working primarily with schools and youth, and was a member of the Salt & Light UK evangelism forum. I later embarked upon theological study, at Regent College, Vancouver, and subsequently at the University of Cambridge, UK. I am currently the Academic Dean for King’s School of Theology, whilst also working to complete my PhD at Cambridge.