Plenary session contributors Plenary 1: 09.45 – 10.00

Plenary session contributors
Plenary 1: 09.45 – 10.00
Professor Chris Hawkesworth (Session chair)
Deputy Principal and Vice Principal (Research), University of St Andrews
Professor Hawkesworth is an earth scientist, who works in the field of isotope
geochemistry. He was previously Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol
where he served as Research Director of the Science Faculty.
Educated at Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Oxford, Professor Hawkesworth
has served on a range of national and international committees and has held a number of
editorial positions, including presently for the journal Science. He is a fellow of the Royal
Society, the European Association for Geochemistry and the American Geophysical Union
and has an honorary doctorate from the University of Copenhagen.
Paul Manners
Director of the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement
Paul Manners is Associate Professor in Public Engagement at University of West of England
(UWE) and director of the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement. The NCCPE’s
role is to help to coordinate public engagement practice and to support innovation and
strategic change in universities.
Paul’s whole career has been education related. He trained as a secondary English teacher
and after teaching for five years, joined the BBC where his credits include the long running
BBC2 series, ‘Rough Science’. He is chair of the National Trust’s advisory panel on Learning
and Engagement and a fellow of the RSA.
Ben Dipper
Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser, Scottish Government
Ben currently leads Scottish Government’s Science and Society Division within the Office of
the Chief Scientific Adviser. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics are essential
components of sustainable economic growth, and the Division seeks to promote a culture of
science across Scotland, to raise awareness of the relevance and importance of science, to
promote public involvement in policy development, and to complement formal science
learning in the classroom and promote the pursuit of science careers. The Division works
with a wide range of partners across the science sector in Scotland in pursuit of these aims,
facilitating dialogue and collaborations, and seeking connections and efficiencies across a
wide range of initiatives. Before joining Scottish Government in 2003, Ben held a number of
environmental science and policy posts in the private, charity, public and academic
sectors. He lives in Edinburgh and is a keen scuba-diver and hillwalker.
Professor Huw Davies
Professor of Health Care Policy & Management, School of Management, University of St
Andrews
Huw Davies is Professor of Health Care Policy & Management at The School of
Management, the University of St Andrews, and Co-Director of the Research Unit for
Research Utilisation (RURU). His research interests are in public service delivery,
encompassing: evidence-informed policy and practice; performance measurement and
management; accountability, governance and trust. Huw has published widely in each of
these areas, including the highly acclaimed Using Evidence: How Research Can Inform Public
Services (Policy Press, 2007)
Plenary 2: 13.15 – 14.00
Professor Malcolm MacLeod (session chair)
Provost of St Leonards College and Dean of Postgraduate Studies, University of St Andrews
Malcolm MacLeod, BSc, PhD, CPsychol, FBPsS, FRSA is Provost of St Leonard’s College and
Dean of Postgraduate Studies. He has responsibilities for postgraduate funding, enterprise
and entrepreneurship, and provides academic leadership for St Leonard’s College which is
the primary focus for postgraduates and contract research staff at St Andrews. By training,
he is an experimental psychologist whose main research interests are concerned with the
cognitive mechanisms underpinning remembering and forgetting. He has served in various
senior academic roles including Head of the School of Psychology & Neuroscience, and Dean
of the Faculty of Science. He is currently the Hon Secretary for the Executive Committee of
UK Deans of Science. He is also a Chartered Psychologist, an elected Fellow of the Royal
Society of Arts, and an elected Fellow of the British Psychological Society. In his spare time,
he enjoys spending time with his family, watching tennis, listening to music, and engaging in
a spot of fly fishing.
Heather Rea
Project Lead, Beltane Public Engagement Network
Heather is the Project Lead for the Beltane Public Engagement Network. The Network
follows on from the Edinburgh Beltane Beacon for Public Engagement project previously
funded by RCUK, the Funding Councils and the Wellcome Trust, and is now supported by
four universities: The University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh Napier
University and Queen Margaret University. Heather was the Deputy Director for the
Edinburgh Beltane for 4 years, and a researcher in Mechanical Engineering for 11 years. As
a researcher she worked on two EPSRC PPE grants, and two RAEng Ingenious grants with
PhD and undergraduate students delivering engineering outreach activities at local schools
and science festivals.
Having been an active researcher, Heather is aware of the pressures on researcher’s time,
and many misconceptions researchers might have about public engagement activities. She
also has first-hand experience of the benefits public engagement has for researchers,
research and society. The Beltane programmes are devised to help researchers identify and
realise the potential of their work for society.
Steve Farrar
UK Editor, The Journals of Improbable Research and IgNobel Awards
Details to be supplied
Dr Charles Paxton
Research Fellow, School of mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews
I am a research fellow in statistical ecology in the Centre for Research into Ecological and
Environmental Modelling (CREEM) at the University of St Andrews. I was part of the team
that won the Ig Nobel prize for biology in 2002 for our work on the behaviour of ostriches.
In addition to ostriches I have worked on the ecology of perch, pike, guppies, penguins,
catfishes and whales and dolphins...and sea monsters, but the latter is only a hobby.
Plenary 3: 13.15 – 14.00
Professor Nic Beech (Session chair)
Dean of Arts, University of St Andrews
Professor Nic Beech, BSc, MA, MSc, PhD, FCIPD, FRSA is Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University
of St Andrews and Vice Chair of the British Academy of Management. He has also held the posts of
Head of the School of Management at St Andrews, Head of the Department of Management at the
University of Strathclyde and Lead Fellow of the UK Advanced Institute of Management. His research
interests are in management practice, change and the construction of identity, principally in the
creative industries. He has undertaken significant research projects funded by the ESRC, EU and
industry partners and has published 39 articles in peer-reviewed journals and over 20 chapters in
edited collections. His six books include Managing Creativity (with B Townley, 2010) and Managing
Change (with R MacIntosh, 2012) both published by Cambridge University Press.
Panellists
Details to be supplied