George Grimble

Academic Bio: 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.

Karis Riley

Academic Bio: 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.

Andy McIntosh

Academic Bio: 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.

Melissa Grant-Peters

Academic Bio: Melissa is a fellow at the University of Cambridge. After about a decade of wetlab experience in cellular and molecular biology, she transitioned to being fully computational during her DPhil at the University of Oxford. She now uses bioinformatics to analyse high-throughput molecular profiling datasets of the human brain, including transcriptomic and biochemical datasets.

With an interdisciplinary background, her research borrows tools and methods across scientific areas to understand the molecular features of neurodegeneration, with an emphasis on diseases like multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. Her current fellowship focuses on understanding why neurodegenerative diseases have overlapping symptoms and high co-morbidity rates when this relationship is not reflected in overlapping genetic risk.

Richard Buggs

Academic Bio: Pending

Ruth Norris

Academic Bio: 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.

At UCL, she serves as Co-Director of the Centre for Urban Sustainability and Resilience and as Director of the MSc in Engineering for International Development. Her research focuses on cost-effective solutions to reduce pollution and improve public health and wellbeing. In 2023, she received the Gold Medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers, and in 2024, she was named one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering. She currently serves as Chair of the IWA Specialist Group on Sanitation and Water Management in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

Yoseph Araya

Academic Bio: Yoseph is a senior lecturer in ecology and environmental sciences at The Open University, UK. Yoseph’s teaching and research interests, encompass the ecosystem level interactions amongst plant communities (how do diverse plants manage to coexist) to how humans utilise our natural environment (from biodiversity of food sources to aesthetic values of nature).

He has worked in various ecosystems from temperate, to Mediterranean and tropical across Africa and Europe. He is keen in engaging the public (through formal modules as well as BBC) to participatory activities (i.e. citizen science through iSpot) in ecological research.

Szilvi Watson

Academic Bio: My main research interest lies in student religiosity. I obtained a BA in Theology in Budapest, Hungary. After working in a number of ministry and teaching settings, I completed a PGCE in Religious Education at the Department of Education, University of Oxford, followed by an MSc in Research Design and Methodology.

I recently attained a DPhil in Education at the same Department, my thesis titled ‘Christian postgraduates in England – Exploring religious identity and the university experience’. I now hold a research assistant position while securing funding for further work exploring and improving the experiences of religious members of the academic community.

Eline van Aperen

Academic Bio: I did my undergraduate and MA degrees in Archaeology at Leiden University in my home country, The Netherlands. Besides specialising in ice age animals, I also spent a year studying philosophy, with specific interest in philosophy of science and Christian philosophy. In 2006 I moved to York, UK, to pursue a PhD in Archaeology. I studied ice age animals: how they adapted to climatic change and how they interacted with each other and their environment. Such work is called palaeoecology.

After my PhD, I held two postdoctoral grants (a Marie Curie grant and a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship), both at Liverpool John Moores University. During my second postdoc, I pivoted from studying animals to vegetation in the past, looking particularly at dung fungi and how they can help us to understand how animals, and human husbandry practices, have influenced vegetation development.

I also started teaching and really loved it! I taught various archaeological modules, but also ran a module called ‘Science and Religion’ in the Medical School. Since 2017 I have worked for Newcastle University, where as a part-time technician I oversee the Wolfson Archaeology Laboratories, and I continue my research. My recent projects have focused on using records of long-term vegetation change to inform conservation policy and decision making around woodland creation, landscape management, and mining pollution.

Richard Gunton

Academic Bio: I’m a senior lecturer in data science at Queen Mary University of London.  I’m also a Trustee of the Thinking Faith Network and an Associate Fellow of the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology in Cambridge. 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.