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Adrian WellerView profile

Research Professor

• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Explainability
• +9 more

Adrian Weller is a prominent researcher and academic at the University of Cambridge, serving as a Director of Research in Machine Learning within the Department of Engineering. He holds multiple significant leadership roles including Programme Director for Trust and Society at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI), and previously served as Programme Director for AI at The Alan Turing Institute, the UK national institute for data science and AI. His work bridges theoretical machine learning research with practical applications and societal implications of artificial intelligence. Weller's research interests span a broad spectrum of AI and machine learning topics with a particular focus on ensuring beneficial societal outcomes. His work encompasses explainability, fairness, robustness, scalability, privacy, safety, and ethics in AI systems. He has made significant contributions to trustworthy machine learning, including developing frameworks for AI governance, certification, and human-AI collaboration. His research group actively investigates neuro-symbolic approaches, privacy-preserving techniques, and methods for improving the reliability and interpretability of AI systems. His recent publications demonstrate a strong trend toward addressing the practical challenges of deploying AI systems in real-world contexts, particularly focusing on certification frameworks, governance mechanisms, and human-centered approaches. His work spans theoretical advances in machine learning architectures while maintaining a strong connection to societal impact, with publications appearing in top venues across AI, machine learning, and interdisciplinary applications. Scientific Awards: MBE for services to digital innovation (2022 Queen's Birthday Honours) Turing AI Fellowship for Trustworthy Machine Learning Weller actively supervises a large group of PhD students and postdocs, with current students including Juyeon Heo, Yanzhi Chen, Katie Collins, Isaac Reid, Yichao Liang, Herbie Bradley, and Shoaib Siddiqui. His former students have gone on to positions at leading institutions including Google DeepMind, ETH Zurich, NYU, and MPI-IS Tübingen. He has served on numerous advisory boards including the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, UNESCO's expert group on AI ethics, and the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on AI. His research has been supported through his Turing AI Fellowship and various collaborative projects focused on safe and ethical AI development. Weller leads a vibrant research group focused on trustworthy machine learning, which actively organizes workshops and conferences including ICML 2024 (where he served as Program Chair), multiple workshops on responsible AI, and events through the ELLIS network. His group collaborates extensively across disciplines, working with researchers in computer science, social sciences, law, and policy to address the multifaceted challenges of developing beneficial AI systems.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Security
• Multi-Agent Systems
• +3 more

Dr. Chunyan Mu serves as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Natural and Computing Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, actively contributing to both academic instruction and cutting-edge research in computing science while currently accepting new PhD students. Her research program centers on Trustworthy AI and Safe Autonomy, with specialized expertise in formal verification of responsibility, accountability, and privacy mechanisms within multi-agent systems. She investigates resilience frameworks for autonomous intelligent systems and develops advanced methodologies for information flow security analysis, bridging theoretical computer science with practical security implementations. Analysis of her publication trajectory (2014-2025) reveals consistent innovation in applying formal methods to security-critical systems. Key thematic developments include probabilistic strategy logic for observability analysis, quantitative verification of opacity properties, and game-theoretic approaches to security verification, demonstrating increasing sophistication in handling multi-agent accountability and system resilience challenges. Dr. Mu currently supervises PhD candidates and offers a fully funded doctoral position focused on formal verification of safety properties in autonomous systems, providing comprehensive financial support including tuition coverage, £20,780 annual stipend, and dedicated research funding for candidates with strong backgrounds in formal methods and artificial intelligence.

• Applied Linguistics
• Language Testing and Assessment
• Language Assessment Literacy
• +6 more

Professor Luke Harding is a faculty member at the Department of Linguistics and English Language , Lancaster University , within the School of Social Sciences . His work bridges applied linguistics, language assessment, and critical discourse studies, with a focus on the ethical and societal implications of testing. Research Interests : Language testing and assessment, World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), second language listening and pronunciation assessment, diagnostic approaches to language evaluation, and language assessment literacy. Recent projects integrate digital technology and corpus linguistics into testing frameworks. Publications : Published extensively in Language Testing , Applied Linguistics , and Language Assessment Quarterly . Co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Language Testing (Second Edition) (2022), a key reference work in the field. Teaching : Leads modules in Language Test Construction and Evaluation , Issues in Language Testing , and Statistical Analysis for Language Testing within the university's distance MA program. Leadership : Convened the Language Testing Research Group with colleagues Tineke Brunfaut and John Pill, advancing interdisciplinary approaches to assessment.

Louise AshleyView profile

Associate Professor

• Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
• Social Mobility
• Socio-Economic Diversity
• +3 more

Dr Louise Ashley is an Associate Professor and IHSS Fellow at Queen Mary University of London’s School of Business and Management. Her research focuses on equality, diversity, and inclusion within elite professions such as law, accountancy, and investment banking, with a particular emphasis on socio-economic diversity, gender, and ethnicity. She leads research projects funded by the UK government’s Social Mobility Commission and has advised third-sector organizations like UpReach and the Bridge Group. Her work examines barriers to social mobility and evaluates organizational diversity programs. Dr Ashley’s research includes comprehensive analyses of non-educational barriers to elite professions, socio-economic exclusion dynamics, and gender inequities in professional work environments. She has published in leading journals such as Human Relations and Work, Employment and Society , and her findings have been featured in mainstream media including BBC Radio 4, the New York Times, and The Guardian. Her research grants include a £158,579 AHRC award for interdisciplinary civic theatre research (2021–2022) and a £25,900 Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission grant (2015). She supervises PhD students exploring topics like feminist identity in Chinese entrepreneurship. Dr Ashley holds roles on multiple advisory committees, including the City of London Corporation Social Mobility Taskforce and the JLL Foundation’s social equality initiatives.

Rebecca BeasleyView profile

Professor

• Modernist Literature
• Twentieth-Century British and American Literature
• Russian-British Cultural Relations
• +5 more

Rebecca Beasley is Professor of Modernist Studies and Tutorial Fellow in English at The Queen's College, University of Oxford, where she has taught since 2009 after prior appointments at Queen Mary University of London, University of Liverpool, and Birkbeck College. Her expertise spans Victorian to contemporary literature with specialized focus on modernist movements, visual culture intersections, and transnational literary networks. Her academic background includes: BA in English from University of Cambridge MA from University of California, Berkeley PhD from University of Cambridge (focused on Ezra Pound) Professor Beasley's research centers on Anglo-American modernism and Russian cultural influences on British literature, examining how translation, periodical culture, and institutional frameworks shaped modernist aesthetics. Her work bridges literary analysis with cultural history to explore cross-border artistic exchanges and the socio-political dimensions of modernist innovation. Publication trends reveal an evolution from early studies of Pound's visual aesthetics toward comprehensive investigations of Russian-British cultural transfer, culminating in her award-winning monograph Russomania (2020). This trajectory highlights her methodological shift from author-centric criticism to network-based analysis of modernism's global entanglements. Her scholarly recognition includes: Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship AHRC Research Fellowship British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies Women's Forum Prize Professor Beasley has supervised sixteen doctoral candidates to completion with research spanning modernist poetics, translation theory, and cultural history, while securing major grants for collaborative projects like the Anglo-Russian Research Network (2011-2019). She currently mentors students on Virginia Woolf, avant-garde theatre, and global modernisms while directing Oxford's MSt programs and serving as general editor for Edinburgh University Press's modernist studies series. She co-founded the Anglo-Russian Research Network and contributes to editorial boards of Modernist Cultures and Textual Practice , maintaining active leadership in the British Association for Modernist Studies and Oxford's Modern and Contemporary Research Seminar.

Rosalind ThomasView profile

Professor

• Greek Historiography
• Ancient History
• Persian-Greek Relations
• +1 more

Professor Rosalind Thomas is Professor of Ancient Greek History at the University of Oxford and Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Balliol College. Her research centers on Greek historiography, particularly local histories and collective memory in the Greek world. Recent scholarship includes a comprehensive study of polis and island histories during the late Classical and early Hellenistic periods, analyzing these writings as cultural and political artifacts. Current work examines Greek interactions with the Persian Empire and Archaic Greek state formation processes. As Fellow of the British Academy, she maintains active research programs exploring how historical narratives shaped Greek identity and political organization across Mediterranean contexts.

• Transnational Film Studies
• East Asian Cinema
• Film Festivals
• +5 more

Dr Nikki Ji-Yeon Lee is a Senior Lecturer in Asian Media at Nottingham Trent University's Department of Humanities, School of Social Sciences. With prior academic appointments at Yonsei University and Korea National University of Arts in Seoul, her career bridges UK and Korean academic spheres. She co-founded the London Korean Film Festival in 2001 and maintains active industry connections as a former independent documentary filmmaker and film event interpreter. Her educational background includes: BA and MA in Sociology from Yonsei University, Seoul MA in TV Documentary from Goldsmiths College, University of London PhD in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths College, University of London Lee's research specializes in transnational East Asian cinema with emphases on Korean and Chinese film industries, film festival circuits, and cinematic soundscapes. Her work critically examines globalization's impact on film production, auteur branding, audience reception, and co-production models, particularly investigating how cultural specificity navigates global markets. Current projects explore Korean film sound design, China-Korea media collaborations, and East Asian television drama formats. Analysis of her 2018-2025 publications reveals evolving research trajectories: early work focused on film festival politics and auteur studies (e.g., Park Chan-wook), while recent scholarship increasingly engages with sound studies and occult genres in Korean cinema. Her output consistently bridges industrial analysis with cultural criticism, demonstrating expertise in both Korean cinematic traditions and transnational media flows. Lee has significantly contributed to academic discourse through editorial projects including co-editing The Korean Cinema Book (BFI/Palgrave Macmillan) and Japanese Cinema (Routledge). Her publications in Cinema Journal and Screen establish her as a key voice in East Asian film studies, with Korea Film Council (KOFIC) recognizing her expertise through commissioned research on UK distribution patterns.

Tineke BrunfautView profile

Professor

• Language Testing
• Second Language Reading
• Second Language Listening
• +5 more

Professor Tineke Brunfaut is a leading academic in Applied Linguistics at Lancaster University 's School of Social Sciences. Her work focuses on language testing , second language reading , listening , and integrated/multimodal skills . She coordinates the Language Testing Research Group and has received prestigious awards including the ILTA Best Article Award , e-Assessment Award , and TOEFL Outstanding Young Scholar Award . Key research areas: Cognitive and affective factors in testing, methodological innovations (eye-tracking, discourse analysis), and language test development. Recipient of multiple grants from the British Council, Trinity College London, and British Academy. PhD supervision interests: Language testing, integrated skills, assessment literacy, and validation. Recent publications explore technology-enhanced assessment , multimodal viewing-to-write tasks , and the impact of delivery modes on test performance . She has consulted for global institutions on test design and evaluation. Scientific Awards : ILTA Best Article Award e-Assessment Award for Best Research TOEFL Outstanding Young Scholar Award Her teaching includes MA programs in Language Testing, TESOL, and Applied Linguistics, covering Test Construction , Research Methods , and Statistical Analyses .

• International Relations
• Transnational Elite Networks
• Chinese International Thought
• +4 more

Dr Ferran Perez Mena serves as Assistant Professor in International Relations of East Asia at Durham University's School of Government and International Affairs. His academic profile centers on transnational political dynamics between Chinese and Western non-state actors, with emphasis on elite networks and knowledge production in global politics. His research program investigates three interconnected domains: transnational elite connections between Chinese and Western non-state actors; formation of non-Western transnational elite networks; and relationships between Chinese IR scholars, the state, and conceptualizations of world order. Methodologically grounded in International Historical Sociology, his work examines Chinese international thought across historical periods including the Republican era, Maoism, and contemporary 'Chinese School of IR' frameworks. Publication trends reveal consistent focus on East Asian political thought through historical-materialist lenses, with increasing emphasis on knowledge production mechanisms and non-Western IR theory development since 2019. His output spans monographs, journal articles in International Politics and Sociología Histórica, and policy-oriented contributions in major Spanish and Portuguese media outlets. Scientific awards and recognition: British Academy grant (2024) for research on Chinese elites and knowledge production ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship offer (declined) Open University of Catalonia Postdoctoral Fellowship offer (declined) His public intellectual engagement includes regular contributions to El País, La Vanguardia, and Publico analyzing East Asian geopolitical developments. Current research trajectories indicate deepening investigation into transnational elite networks and the political economy of knowledge production in Sino-Western relations.

Efthymios PavlidisView profile

Professor

• Macroeconomics
• International Finance
• Time Series Econometrics
• +4 more

Professor Efthymios Pavlidis is a faculty member in the Department of Economics at Lancaster University Management School (LUMS). He holds the rank of Professor and specializes in macroeconomics, international finance, and time series econometrics. His research focuses on housing market dynamics through collaborations like the International Housing Observatory (with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas) and the UK Housing Observatory. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, reflecting his commitment to academic excellence in teaching and research. His research interests include speculative bubble detection, real estate price forecasting, and testing parity conditions in financial markets. Pavlidis actively supervises PhD students in applied time series econometrics, emphasizing practical applications in financial markets and housing economics. He is involved in numerous academic activities, including organizing conferences and workshops such as the Dynare Conference and the Lancaster Economics Seminar. Key contributions include developing econometric methods for detecting market exuberance and analyzing real exchange rates. His work bridges theoretical econometrics with practical policy implications, particularly in housing and energy markets. Pavlidis collaborates internationally, evidenced by his participation in global academic networks and institutions like the European Economic Association and the Royal Economic Society. His teaching includes the course ECON222 Intermediate Macroeconomics I, and he maintains an office in the Management School (B015), with weekly office hours on Tuesdays. A comprehensive overview of his research and projects is available at his personal webpage: https://sites.google.com/view/etpavlidis/ .

Kitty StewartView profile

Professor

• Child poverty
• Social security policies
• Early Childhood Education and Care
• +6 more

Kitty Stewart serves as Professor in the Department of Social Policy and Associate Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. With a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence, she brings over two decades of research experience to her role, having joined CASE as a post-doctoral researcher in 2001 after working at UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre. Her educational background includes a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute, Florence, establishing her interdisciplinary approach that bridges economics and social policy analysis. Stewart's research focuses primarily on child poverty, social security policies, and early childhood education and care systems. Her work examines the impact of welfare reforms on family wellbeing, with particular attention to larger families and ethnic minority groups. She employs mixed methods approaches to investigate how cash support for children affects family finances, how benefit caps influence housing choices, and how welfare conditionality shapes parental behavior. Her research demonstrates how policy design affects both immediate family wellbeing and long-term intergenerational outcomes, with recent work highlighting the intersection of poverty, ethnicity, and welfare conditionality in the UK context. Analysis of her recent publications reveals a consistent focus on welfare conditionality and its consequences, particularly examining the two-child limit and benefit cap policies. Her research demonstrates how these policies create poverty traps, disproportionately affect ethnic minority families, and fail to achieve their stated employment incentives while increasing hardship. She has developed innovative conceptual frameworks, including the 'adult-behavior-orientated' policy category, to better understand contemporary welfare reforms. Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Trustee of the Education Policy Institute Trustee of the Child Poverty Action Group Stewart leads multiple significant research projects including 'Family finances: What difference does cash support for children make?' funded by the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, which examines the Scottish Child Payment, and a four-year Nuffield Foundation study on 'Benefit changes and larger families' investigating the two-child limit and Benefit Cap. Her work frequently employs mixed methods approaches combining quantitative analysis with in-depth qualitative interviews to capture both statistical trends and lived experiences of policy changes. She regularly contributes to policy debates through CASEbriefs and engagements with organizations like the Child Poverty Action Group. As Associate Director of CASE (Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion), Stewart works within one of the UK's leading research centers focused on poverty, inequality, and social exclusion. CASE operates within LSE's Department of Social Policy and maintains strong connections with policymakers, third sector organizations, and international research networks. The center's multidisciplinary approach enables comprehensive analysis of social policy issues from economic, sociological, and political perspectives.

George BodieView profile

Lecturer

• Contemporary German History
• Cold War History
• Socialist Internationalism
• +5 more

George Bodie is a Lecturer in History at Goldsmiths, University of London, specializing in contemporary German history and the global Cold War. His academic work focuses on the connections between East Germany (GDR) and the postcolonial world, examining how ideas of socialist internationalism and solidarity were constructed and manifested in everyday life. Dr. Bodie completed his academic training with a BA in History from the University of Sussex (2011), an MA in European History from University College London (2012), and a PhD in History also from University College London (2020). George Bodie's research explores the construction of socialist internationalism and how these ideas shaped everyday behavior. His work primarily focuses on East Germany's connections with Cuba, Africa, and other parts of the postcolonial world during the Cold War era. He examines how these connections were represented in media, experienced through tourism and educational exchanges, and how they shaped both GDR citizens' worldview and the international standing of the socialist state. His research bridges diplomatic history, cultural studies, and transnational history to provide a comprehensive understanding of how socialist internationalism functioned as a mass phenomenon rather than just an elite project. Bodie's recent publications demonstrate a clear trend toward examining the everyday manifestations of socialist internationalism. His work moves beyond traditional diplomatic histories to explore how ordinary citizens experienced connections between socialist states and postcolonial nations. Through analyses of tourism, media representations, and educational exchanges, he reveals the complex tensions between ideological solidarity and consumerist pleasure in socialist internationalism. His research significantly contributes to understanding how the Cold War was experienced at the grassroots level across different geopolitical contexts. British Association for Slavonic & East European Studies Postgraduate Prize for Best Scholarly Article by a Postgraduate Student Dr. Bodie teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programs at Goldsmiths. His teaching includes BA modules on 'The Central Powers in the First World War,' 'Germany's African Road to the Holocaust,' and 'The Greatest Whodunnit in History: Who Caused the First World War?' He also teaches the MA module 'A History of Violence.' His research appears in prestigious journals including the Journal of Contemporary History and International Review of Social History. He is currently working on a book exploring links between East Germany and the postcolonial world.

• Alcohol Research
• Drug Research
• Intoxication Studies
• +4 more

Geoffrey Hunt is a Professor at the Centre for Alcohol and Drugs Research, Aarhus University, Denmark, and Director of the Institute for Scientific Analysis in San Francisco, USA. He co-edited the comprehensive Routledge Handbook of Intoxicants and Intoxication (2022), which synthesizes multidisciplinary perspectives on global intoxication practices across 34 chapters and eight thematic sections. His research spans dual domains: (1) alcohol and drug studies examining social/cultural dimensions of intoxication (evident in his editorial work on global intoxicant practices across 19+ countries), and (2) special educational needs with focus on evidence-based interventions for intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and language impairments. Key interests include ethical frameworks for European psychologists, mediation in educational disputes, and historical policy analysis since the Warnock Report. Recent publications (2020-2025) reveal strong methodological emphasis on randomized controlled trials (E-PAtS program), cost-effectiveness analysis of mediation services, and systematic reviews of inclusive education practices. The work consistently addresses UK policy contexts while maintaining international relevance through European psychology ethics frameworks and cross-cultural intoxication studies.

Jack CunliffeView profile

Senior Lecturer

• Cybercrime
• Policy Evaluation
• Quantitative Methods
• +5 more

Dr Jack Cunliffe is a Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Methods and Criminology at the University of Kent's School of Social Sciences, serving as Director of Studies for Criminology since joining in 2015. His academic journey began with a mathematics undergraduate degree, followed by a PhD in Social Policy from the London School of Economics, and prior government experience in the Home Office and Ministry of Justice. His educational background includes: PhD in Social Policy, London School of Economics (thesis on structural equation modelling of area characteristics as offending risk factors) Undergraduate degree in Mathematics Dr Cunliffe's primary research focuses are cybercrime (particularly online drug trade and fraud) and policy evaluation (assessing prison interventions and drug diversion schemes). He actively contributes as the School of Social Sciences champion for the Institute of Cyber Security for Society and collaborates across disciplines on identity fusion, charitable giving during the pandemic, and primary school civic education. His methodological expertise lies in advanced quantitative analysis of administrative and survey data. His publication record (2017-2025) demonstrates a cohesive research trajectory: early work centered on cryptomarkets and darknet drug trade (2017-2019), evolving into prison rehabilitation interventions (2024-2025) and pandemic-related social behavior (2023). These publications, appearing in high-impact journals like Nature Human Behaviour and BMJ, reflect interdisciplinary collaboration and a commitment to addressing pressing societal issues through rigorous quantitative methods. No scientific awards, fellowships, or medals are documented in the provided information. Dr Cunliffe has led quantitative components of major projects including the Ministry of Justice-funded Prison Leavers Project and evaluations of police drug diversion schemes. He mentors PhD students in cybercrime and policy evaluation and has designed significant curriculum reforms for Kent's criminology program. His grant portfolio reflects strong partnerships with government agencies and interdisciplinary academic teams. As the School of Social Sciences representative for the Institute of Cyber Security for Society, Dr Cunliffe fosters cross-school collaboration on cybercrime research. He also plays a central role in the criminology program's academic leadership, having overseen a comprehensive curriculum redesign and teaching advanced quantitative methods and cybercrime courses.

Cheryl CapekView profile

Lecturer

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Language Processing
• Sign Language
• +2 more

Dr. Cheryl Capek is Lecturer at the University of Manchester's Division of Psychology, Communication and Human Neuroscience. Her research examines the neural organization of language processing, including sign language, speechreading, and cross-modal plasticity. Research employs fMRI, ERP, and behavioral methods to study language processing in deaf and hearing populations. Key interests include neural plasticity in sensory deprivation and sign language phonology. Capek directs the MSc Neuroimaging program and teaches cognitive neuroscience courses. She collaborates internationally on deaf cognition research.