Education and Public Affairs Committee
Chair: Dr Jeremy Pritchard
Jeremy Pritchard is a senior lecturer in Plant Biology at the University of Birmingham. His research career started with roots in Wales and currently focuses on aphids in Birmingham with stops in the USA, New Zealand and Europe in between. His teaching spans field ecology through to plant functional genomics. As a card-carrying Darwinist he is involved in teaching evolution at all levels from primary school to the U3A. As an admissions tutor he is concerned about the opening fault line at the secondary tertiary boundary. Increasingly obsessed with skills, he has developed resources to help teachers and learners at all levels. His favourite thing is phloem and he badgers the public about it (and Darwin) at every opportunity.
Dr Iain Barber
Iain Barber is a senior lecturer at Leicester University where he leads a research group in the Department of Biology. His research focuses on the effects of a wide range of environmental stressors on the behavioural and evolutionary ecology of fish. An enthusiastic educator, Iain currently teaches on modules in animal behaviour, behavioural ecology and parasitology and supervises both undergraduate and postgraduate research students. Iain joined the Education Section in 2010 after serving on the Council of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles, and on the Education Committee of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Sarah Blackford (Head of Education & Public Affairs, SEB)
Sarah takes a lead role in the operational activities of the Committee carrying through its proposals and decisions in partnership with its members depending on the project and associated expertise required. She takes on a diversity of roles organising education, training and public affairs events, facilitating professional development of SEB members and the wider Bioscience community and delivering specialised career development workshops.
Dr Tijana Blanusa
Working as a Horticultural Scientist for the Royal Horticultural Society and based at the University of Reading (where she is a RHS Research Fellow), Tijana has a passion for communicating science to the public and has participated in numerous outreach events in the last 10 years, communicating her own work but also science in general (e.g. at the Hampton Court Flower Show, Glasgow Science Centre, Royal Festival Hall, primary school visits etc.).
Dr Anne Borland
Anne Borland is Reader in Molecular Plant Physiology at Newcastle University. She is principal investigator of Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) North East, a public engagement project that aims to inspire discovery and celebration of the natural world. She is also Director of Moorbank Botanic Garden, overseeing its schools education programme and delivering public lectures on the role of plants within the sustainability agenda.
Professor Bill Davies
Former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Experimental Biology and former director of the Lancaster Environment Centre, Bill brings a wealth of experience and innovative thinking to the Committee. Recently Bill has been building links with China and advising them on the development of unique scientific and land management strategies to address food security. In connection with this, he led the first Education & Public Affairs Symposium on Food Security & Safety which brought to together social scientists, economists, policy professionals and scientists to address the challenges which lie ahead.
Professor David Evans
David works as a plant cell biologist at Oxford Brookes University and is also Head of the University’s Graduate School, a role he took on because of his interests in postgraduate education. He is particularly interested in equipping postgraduates for outreach and science communication and was instrumental in the introduction of young scientist prize lectures at SEB meetings.
Dr Alison Kingston-Smith
Alison’s current interests lie in stress biology and cell death and is she is leader of the Plant-Microbe Interactions Group in IBERS, Aberystwyth University. The researchers within this multidisciplinary team combine expertise in plant, microbial and animal science to explore relationships between feed utilisation and emissions of farmed ruminants. Alison also has many years experience in supervising the research projects of postgraduate, undergraduate and Nuffield (sixth form) students. Within the Education and Public Affairs Section, Alison is involved in women in science issues and regularly chairs the SEB-run women in science networking dinners.
Dr Jenny Sneddon
Jenny is a Vertebrate Environmental Physiologist at Liverpool John Moores University with 17 years’ of experience in managing work experience for undergraduates as well as running Nuffield placement for 6th form school students. Latterly, she has assisted Sarah Blackford with creating teams of professionals for delivery of continuing professional development workshops for SEB members e.g. radio communication & measuring biodiversity. Jenny adopted the ‘SEB Education template’ for running sixth form debates with panels of eminent scientists on issues such as biodiversity loss, climate change and science & the media and is now working with a local High School on a long-term environmental monitoring project
Dr Teresa Valencak
Passionate about how animals cope with reproduction and how this affects their fitness, Teresa is an animal physiologist based in Vienna, Austria. She teaches classes in animal physiology, supervises students, is involved in organising seminars and symposia while working on her various projects. Currently, she also works at the University of Aberdeen on a project in mice. Apart from all that, Teresa is busy in communicating science to the public: she gives talks and interviews and writes contributions for hunting magazines. As Teresa is funded by the Austrian Science Foundation on a so- called "habilitation" fellowship, she is very familiar with all the tasks related to obtaining this postdoctoral degree. She is happy to be contacted on all aspects related to career development in "good old" Europe.