Steering group membership

Professor John Curtice
John Curtice is a Professor in Politics and Director of the Social Statistics Laboratory at the University of Strathclyde. He conducts research into social and political attitudes, electoral behaviour, electoral systems and survey research methods, both in Scotland in particular and in Britain as a whole.

John has a long working association with the National Centre for Social Research (also known as NatCen, and formerly known as Social and Community Planning Research), and since 2001 has been a research consultant to the National Centre's Edinburgh office, known as the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen). As a result of this collaboration John has been a co-editor of NatCen’s annual British Social Attitudes Reports since 1994 and a co-director of the Scottish Social Attitudes survey since its foundation in 1999. He is also President of the British Polling Council and Vice-Chair of the UK Economic and Social Data Service’s advisory committee.

Dr Guy Barker
Guy Barker is Director of the Genomics Resource Centre, Warwick HRI, University of Warwick. His academic interests include comparative genomics and genome organisation, which includes exploring the genes and mechanisms underlying quality and other traits related to health and well-being. His other research interests include developing a novel approach for the recovery of bio-energy from ligno-cellulolytic waste, exploring the genes and mechanisms underlying fatty acid quality and utilising diversity within the gene pool to understand gene expression and regulation of biodiversity. He is involved in the ongoing international Brassica genome sequencing efforts funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and has further funding in the area of crop science and diet and health, also funded by the BBSRC.

Guy is actively involved in science communication and has received awards from both the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Agriculture (Defra) and BBSRC for his public engagement work. He is a member of the academic advisory panel of the Chemistry Innovation Knowledge Transfer Network (CIKTN), contributor to the Industrial Biotechnology, Innovation and Growth Team (IB-IGT) report and Sciencewise project looking at Public Perception to Industrial Biotechnology, which is continuing through further engagement with the UK department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Forum for the Future.

Garth Boyd
Garth Boyd is the current president of the Northern Ireland Grain Trade Association (NIGTA). Garth has worked for 19 years in the feed and agri supply industry, initially in the compound feed manufacturing sector and then in the importation of feed materials. In 2002 he returned to the compound feed trade and is currently Chief Executive of United Feeds Ltd. In addition to his role in United Feeds and NIGTA, Garth is also Vice-Chair of the Food and Drink Sector Skills Council and Business Representative on the Northern Ireland Drainage Council.

Professor Ian Crute
Professor Ian Crute became the first Chief Scientist of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) in September 2009. Before joining AHDB, Ian had been Director of Rothamsted Research (RRes) since 1999.

Ian obtained a First Class Honours degree in botany and a PhD in plant pathology from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. From 1973 to 1986 he was a research group leader in plant pathology at what is now Warwick-HRI (formerly Horticulture Research International – Wellesbourne). In 1986 he obtained a Fulbright Fellowship and went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA, and on returning to England in 1987 he moved to HRI East Malling (now East Malling Research) as Head of the Crop and Environment Protection Department where his responsibilities included plant pathology and entomology research on perennial crops. He moved back to HRI at Warwick in 1993 and after two years as Head of Plant Pathology (with responsibilities across six geographically dispersed HRI sites), he became Director at Wellesbourne with overall responsibility for the research direction at the site until his move to Rothamsted.

Ian’s scientific contributions are recorded in over 160 publications; he was awarded the Research Medal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1992 and the British Crop Production Council Medal in 2006. Ian is a past-President of the British Society for Plant Pathology, and is currently Chairman of the Sainsbury Laboratory Council (at the John Innes Centre). In the recent past he has also served as Chair of the Plant and Microbial Sciences Committee of BBSRC and as a member of BBSRC Strategy Board. Ian was most recently a member of the Royal Society working group that in October 2009 published its report: 'Reaping the Benefits – science and the sustainable intensification of global agriculture'. He is currently working as a member of the Lead Expert Group for the Government Office of Science Foresight project on 'Food and Farming Futures'.

Alan Hedges
Alan Hedges is an independent consultant who has worked in the world of social and market research since the early 1960s, and has been active in qualitative research for most of that time. Since 1971 he has operated as a self-employed consultant, advising on and carrying out research (with a particular focus on qualitative methods). Before that, he was Research and Marketing Director of SH Benson (then one of Britain’s largest advertising agencies), having originally trained as a quantitative researcher at Mass-Observation. Alan has worked on behalf of most government departments, and a number of public agencies, local authorities and social housing organisations. He is an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Alan’s main professional interests have been:

• social policy and public sector issues (notably environment, housing, health and social security matters)
• consultation, involvement and participation, among stakeholders and the general public
• communications, information and marketing strategy
• facilitation of workshops and seminars
• advice and consultancy – on research methods and on the policy implications of research findings

Lindsey Kearton
Lindsey Kearton is a Senior Policy Advocate for Consumer Focus Wales – an organisation that has been created through the merger of the Welsh Consumer Council, energywatch Wales and Postwatch Wales. She has been working in consumer advocacy for more than six years, largely for the Welsh Consumer Council. She currently leads work programmes on food-related issues (including food poverty and GM food) and debt and financial exclusion.

Her career includes nearly 10 years experience in a commercial market research environment, where she managed a wide range of projects in both the public and private sector. She is also an associate member of the Market Research Society.

Paul Rooke
Paul Rooke is Sector Head of Oilseed and Grain. Paul is based at the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) Head Office in Peterborough and is responsible for the management and coordination of the Oilseed and Grain Sector. Previous to his role with AIC, Paul performed a similar role with the United Kingdom Agricultural Supply Trade Association (UKASTA), having joined the organisation in 1992, on completing a BSc (Hons) degree in Agriculture from Harper Adams. Paul also has a postgraduate qualification in law from Westminster University.

Professor Geraldine Schofield
Geraldine Schofield is currently a visiting Professor at the Egenis Centre (Centre for Genomics in Society) at the University of Exeter. Until 2004, she was a senior manager with Unilever plc, responsible for the strategic analysis of regulatory impacts on Unilever Foods businesses, with particular emphasis on innovation and, responsible for issues management in biotechnology. Professor Schofield has worked closely with organisations such as the Green Alliance and consumer groups on understanding the societal issues of the introduction of gene technology into foods, and was a Food Expert Risk Assessor, in the European Union Food Safety programme.

Professor Schofield has been a member of the Health and Safety Commission, the Advisory Committee on Genetic Modification, the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment and has provided expert evidence to several House of Lords enquiries on GM, and to the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit enquiry into GM crops. By background, Professor Schofield is a microbiologist and worked in academia and the Public Health Service, Porton Down, prior to joining Unilever. She has published papers on microbial taxonomy, regulatory aspects of biotechnology, innovation in industry, and public engagement on GM. She was awarded an MBE in 2002 for ‘services to the biotechnology industry’.

Dr Jack Stilgoe
Jack Stilgoe is Senior Policy Adviser at the Royal Society and an honorary research fellow of University College London. Before the Royal Society, he spent four years at the independent think tank Demos, leading work on science and society. He is the co-author of The Public Value of Science, The Received Wisdom – Opening Up Expert Advice, The Nanodialogues and The Talking Cure.

Professor Joyce Tait
Professor Joyce Tait (CBE, FRSE, D. Univ. (Open), PhD, BSc) is Scientific Adviser of the ESRC Innogen Centre, and a professor at the University of Edinburgh. She has an interdisciplinary background in natural and social sciences covering: technology development strategies in the chemical and life science industries; translational medicine; governance, risk assessment and regulation; policy analysis; stakeholder attitudes and influences; science and risk communication. She is a Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis. Current appointments include: Member of the Board of Directors, Scottish Stem Cell Network Ltd; Member of the Governing Council of the Roslin Institute; Member, Scottish Science Advisory Council; Member of the Scientific and Technical Council of the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC), Geneva. She is also chairing a working party of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, on ‘New Approaches to Biofuels’.

Dr Helen Wallace
Dr Helen Wallace is director of GeneWatch UK, a not-for-profit organisation that campaigns for genetics to be used in the public interest. Helen specialises in the ethics, risks and social implications of human genetics. She has a degree in physics from Bristol University and a PhD in applied mathematics from Exeter University. Helen has worked as an environmental scientist in academia and industry and as Senior Scientist at Greenpeace UK, where she was responsible for science and policy work on a range of issues.

Professor Brian Wynne
Brian Wynne is Professor of Science Studies at Lancaster University, and Associate Director of the ESRC Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics (CESAGen). His education includes MA (Natural Sciences, Cambridge 1968), PhD (Materials Science, Cambridge 1971) and MPhil (Sociology of Science, Edinburgh 1977). His work has covered technology and risk assessment, public risk perceptions, and public understanding of science, focusing on the relations between expert and lay knowledge and policy decision-making. He was an Inaugural Member of the Management Board and Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency, (EEA), (1994-2000) and a Special Adviser to the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee Inquiry into Science and Society, (March 2000). He was also a member of the London Royal Society's Committee on Science in Society. His research interests include technology and risk assessment; contingency, precaution, and innovation governance; public understandings of science and risk; and relations between different forms of knowledge in policy decision-making.