School Industry Advisory Board

Walter is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway. He has extensive experience as bench scientist working in virology and neurosciences during his PhD at Imperial College London, Department of Infectious Diseases and his post doc at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. As a teaching focused lecturer, he specialised in the development of innovative teaching formats to boost inclusivity and active learning, receiving prizes and commendations. Walter has developed several projects aimed at boosting students’ employability, one of which is the Industry Advisory Board which he chairs. He is a fan of outdoors sports and motorcycling.

Professor Richard Amlôt is Head of Behavioural Science at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), and leads UKHSA’s Behavioural Science and Insights Unit (BSIU). The BSIU conducts applied research and evaluation for UKHSA and with its partners, applying evidence and insights from the behavioural and social sciences to a range of health protection and security topics, with a particular focus on public health emergency preparedness and response. He is also the UKHSA Co-Director of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation at University of Bristol, and visiting Professor of Practice in the Psychology of Health Protection at King’s College London.

Nazma has extensive experience of the services industries working in utilities, financial services and telecommunications where she has held various senior roles in marketing. She brings 20 years leadership experience, a quest for knowledge and a passion for supporting, coaching and developing people to achieve their potential. A bold and energetic individual who believes in collaboration and networking to share knowledge, skills and best practice.

Emily has been the London Programmes & Communications Coordinator for AccessHE since 2020. She works with higher education institutions across London on events and resources on several key widening participation areas. These areas include BAME students, disabled students, creative subjects, mature and part time students, care experienced and estranged students, student ambassador programmes and research, monitoring and evaluation. Before joining AccessHE, Emily worked for Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and Balliol College, Oxford in outreach and widening participation.

Neil has been working in the upstream energy industry for over 27 years, having held a variety of positions, from research geochemist / basin modeller to asset exploration management roles in Shell, BG Group and Hess. He has worked in a number of different countries, including The Netherlands, Oman, Australia, China, Russia and Mexico, where he has undertaken technical and business development roles. Neil has also led Shell’s innovation portfolio (“GameChanger”), with the aim of developing new technology and business ideas for both proprietary application and commercialisation. Neil was President of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain (2017-2019) and subsequently founded the “Exploring the Energy Transition” special interest group. Neil recently joined the governing council and became a trustee of the Geological Society of London. He is an active trustee and company secretary for The Etches Collection (a museum of Jurassic marine life on the south coast of Dorset). Neil was awarded by PhD by Royal Holloway University of London in 1993.

Dr Richard Gianfrancesco leads higher education at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. As part of this role, he coordinates a number of Masters-level courses, run in partnership with universities and is the co-director of the well-established MSc: Plant and Fungal Taxonomy, Diversity and Conservation. He also oversees over 75 co-supervised PhD students, an annual cohort of undergraduate and graduate interns and a range of Continued Professional Development courses.

Prior to working at Kew, Richard gained his doctorate at the University of Sheffield and has worked in commercial seed research, publishing, ecological consultancy and manufacturing, all with a focus on plant science and horticulture.

Professor Alistair Griffiths is responsible for managing the RHS’s team of scientists and sits on the RHS Executive Board. He leads a highly skilled team of scientists focused on undertaking scientific research to provide high-quality, evidence-based solutions to address horticultural challenges. He has a First and National Diploma in Horticulture from Myerscough College and obtained his BSc (Hons) and PhD from the University of Reading and is a Visiting Professor of Royal Holloway, University of London. Prior to the RHS he was a key player in using horticulture science to create the award-winning Eden Project, spending a decade there as Head Scientist. Alistair is a UK representative on the Council of the International Society for Horticultural Science, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture and of the Royal Society of Biology. He sits on the Government's Ornamental Horticulture Roundtable and chairs the UK's OHRG Horticultural Scientific Research and Development Group.

Alistair is interested in how gardens, gardening and growing garden plants sustainably (indoors or out) can help towards improving the wellbeing of people and the planet, he is co-author of Your Wellbeing Garden: How to Make Your Garden Good for You - Science, Design, and Practice and lead author of the new RHS Sustainability Strategy, Net Positive for Nature and People. His ambition is to build a more resilient gardening community who enjoy their gardens and who take positive actions by using their gardening handprints to maximise the health of our nation and planet.

Jessica works within the Education Department at the Institute of Physics (IOP) and in the School of Education, Communication & Society at King’s College London (KCL). Jessica has a PhD in Palaeoclimatology from Royal Holloway, University of London before focusing on teaching. After her PGCE Jessica went on to become a science teacher and teacher trainer before moving into education research at the IOP and KCL. She has worked on numerous projects to widen participation in STEM through initiatives targeted at school students, parents and school staff.

Shaun is TRL’s Chief Scientist for Behavioural and Data Sciences. He is an applied cognitive and social psychologist with nearly two decades’ experience in road safety, road user behaviour, and human-technology integration. His research focuses on the safety of young and newly qualified drivers, vulnerable road user safety (especially visibility and conspicuity) and work-related road safety. More generally, his research and commentary focus on raising the standards of evaluation and evidence in the transport domain, including research into automated driving technologies, low-emission vehicles, and the emergence of new models of the movement of people and goods such as shared mobility. He has a track record of delivering projects which impact directly on government policy and advice to road users, including many of the changes in the last decade to driver testing and licensing in Great Britain. He has written over 120 journal articles and customer reports since 2002 and has presented at numerous national and international conferences on road safety and other transport issues. He represents TRL at the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety and acts as a peer reviewer for several scientific journals and grant bodies.

Les Hopper currently works as a Director at Pearson Education, a FTSE 100 education services company specialising in learning resources and qualifications worldwide, and as a Non-executive Director at BPS Assessment, an early stage spinout company specialising in professional assessment in the pharmacological sector. 

Previously Les worked at Oxford University Press and the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. He has over 15 years’ experience working with educators, technologists and academics to produce market leading learning solutions. He is passionate about science education, the power of education to change lives, and the potential that technology offers to support high-quality education.

Ed Ikin is Director of Wakehurst, leading Kew’s 535-acre wild botanic garden and fostering research partnerships with Kew Science through the Landscape Ecology Programme. Ed is interested in harnessing ecological approaches to make horticulture more sustainable and using the power of science to understand how landscape functions and inspire visitors. Ed was previously chair of London Parks & Gardens Trust, General Manager of Morden Hall Park and Rainham Hall in London, Assistant Head Gardener at Chelsea Physic Garden, Head Gardener at Nymans (National Trust) and a Clore Fellow.

Gary Kass is a professional environmental scientist and knowledge broker, with 35 years’ practice in the public and private sectors, working at the interface of science and policy.  He has championed forward-looking, systemic and interdisciplinary approaches to using science and evidence to tackle critical environmental and sustainability challenges. After training as an environmental scientist in the mid-80s and following some time in environmental consulting working with a wide variety of industry and business secures, Gary moved into the public sector in the mid-90s to become Head of the Environment and Energy programme at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology and then Head of Public Engagement with Science and Technology at the (then) Department of Trade and Industry. Gary then joined Natural England in 2007 as Principal Specialist in Strategy and Environmental Futures and has been Deputy Chief Scientist since 2014.  Outside of government, Gary has served on numerous academic panels and boards including the Natural Environment Research Council’s Innovation Advisory Board and has been involved in the Research Excellence framework since 2014, with particular interest in the ‘impact’ agenda.  Gary is also a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Surrey where he seeks to support the development of key competencies for sustainability.  Gary held a Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) Fellowship between 2011 and 2013 and was Council member and then Chair of Institution of Environmental Sciences from 2014 until 2021. Gary is a Chartered Scientist and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Andrew is a partner in Consilium Partners, a specialist health consultancy supporting the NHS to develop sustainable improvements and strategies for services, organisations and systems.  This has included working with Trusts to plan and deliver major change and improvement, health and care systems to develop new models of integrated care and ambitious long-term strategies and AHSNs to improve the adoption of innovative technology.

Prior to this, his NHS career spanned 22 years, joining as a national management trainee and progressing to 10 years as a Chief Executive of two acute Trusts.  He was in the Health Service Journal's top 50 CEOs in the NHS.

He also holds the position of Visiting Professor of Health Care Management at Royal Holloway.

Tim is the chair of the Surrey Health and Wellbeing Board, which published a 10-year Health and Wellbeing strategy which sets out how different partners across Surrey can work together with local communities to tackle the wider determinants of health and improve wellbeing.

Tim was an Elmbridge Borough Councillor for 20 years and elected to Surrey County Council in 2017 and elected to Leader of Surrey County Council in December 2018. As Leader of Surrey County Council, along with the CEO, he has set the organisation on a journey of transformation and championed a bold ‘Vision for 2030’ for Surrey and it’s residents, to make sure everyone in the community is supported, allowed to thrive and to make sure no one is left behind. Tim has also held non-executive roles on a wide range of company board as well as not-for-profit charities, education and in local government.

Dr Harbinder Sandhu is Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Warwick and HCPC Practitioner Health Psychologist. She applies behaviour change and Health Psychology in the design and testing of complex interventions in chronic pain management, neurology (chronic headaches), respiratory conditions and rare diseases (Dystonia). She is leading the first clinical trial in the UK on opioid tapering for those with chronic non-malignant pain (funded by the National Institute of Health Research). She combines her clinical and academic work in the application of Health Psychology in improving wellbeing and management of long-term conditions.

Dr Vydeki has her BSc (Hons) in Pharmacology from University College London. After graduation, she began working for RHM Technology in their food microbiology department before moving into the water industry where she completed her MSc in Microbiology at Birkbeck College, University of London.

In 2019, Vydeki completed her PhD in Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University of Nottingham, specialising in the epidemiology of Acanthamoeba species in water treatment works in England.

Currently, Vydeki is working as a Principal Scientist in the laboratory at Affinity Water, where she has worked since 2006. In addition to her academic qualifications, she is also a Chartered Scientist and a Chartered Biologist.

Dr Richard (Dick) Shaw is an entomologist whose scientific career has focussed on invasive species and their control using natural enemies.  Working for the international not-for-profit environmental and publishing organisation CABI for more than 25 years, he is the current Director at the research labs in Egham as well as responsible for CABI’s operations in Switzerland, the Caribbean and Brazil.  Dick holds various positions on advisory and expert boards and committees as well as delivering teaching and supervision of MSc and PhD students during their studies and hopefully recruiting some of the good ones afterwards!

Professor Bernie Vining is a Fellow and Visiting Professor in Geoscience at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is a senior petroleum geoscientist with over 45 years of experience globally in the petroleum sector and academia. This comprises 30 years with Exxon (later ExxonMobil) in a series of Executive, Managerial, and Technical assignments before moving to the consultancy Gaffney, Cline & Assoc. The latter was subsequently acquired by Baker Hughes, where he was Vice President and Chief Geoscientist worldwide.

Jon is currently the Vice President of Sales for Tobii, the world’s leading eye tracking company, where for 13 years he has worked with academic and commercial institutions around the world across a diverse range of use cases – from psychology research to sports performance, shopper behavioural studies to aviation cognitive load measurement. Prior to that Jon has 25 years of sales, management and training experience across a variety of fields working internationally for some of the world’s largest brands. His core interests are human behaviour, technology and innovation.