Office team
Tracey Brown, managing director
Tracey joined Sense About Science as director in its founding year 2002. Tracey has a background in social research, and previously spent four years working on a European Commission programme to establish social research and teaching in the former Soviet Union, and a year setting up a commercially based risk analysis centre. Tracey is a trustee of Centre of the Cell and MATTER. In 2009 she became a commissioner for the UK Drugs Policy Commission. She sits on the Outreach Committee of the Royal College of Pathologists and in 2009 was made a Friend of the College. Tracey became a member of the Agriculture and Food Security Advisory Board in 2011. She is also treasurer of DCA Hernhill Junior FC.
Read some of Tracey's articles here
Tabitha Innocent, communications officer
Tabitha joined Sense About Science in August 2010. She has a PhD in evolutionary biology from the University of Edinburgh, and previously interned at the Science Media Centre, BIS and the Human Tissue Authority. She is responsible for our communications, including editing the website and writing our newsletter; and matches scientists with projects and requests for help from journalists and civic groups.
Emily Jesper, assistant director
Emily started working at Sense About Science as assistant director in November 2011. She has nine years experience in scientific publishing. Between 2006 and 2011 she worked at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists as the managing editor of the international, peer reviewed journal BJOG. Her positions before that have included, assistant editor at the Novartis Foundation, a small science charity promoting excellence in science and over two years as a biological patent analyst for Thomson Scientific. She has a degree in Biological Science from UMIST, Manchester. Emily also volunteers for a UK wide young person’s helpline called Get Connected.
Síle Lane, campaigns manager
Síle joined Sense About Science as Public Liaison in February 2009 from a career as a stem cell researcher. As Public Liaison Síle worked with regulatory bodies, civic society organisations, the media and policy makers to ensure the public always has access to the best science and evidence. She supported patient groups and medical research charities to promote the tools of scientific thinking and challenge misleading claims. In June 2009 Sense About Science launched the Keep Libel Laws out of Science campaign to reform the UK’s outdated libel laws which inhibit scientific discussion worldwide. Síle manages this campaign and has submitted evidence to Parliamentary and Government enquiries; written for and appeared on national and international media; chaired debates with leading scientists, editors and commentators; organised the fundraising Big Libel Gig at the Palace Theatre, London; and mobilised 55,000 supporters, 60 organisations and hundreds of public figures. The campaign has recently led to the publication of a draft Government libel reform bill. Síle became Campaigns Manager in 2011 and is developing a new dedicated campaigns unit to popularise our approach to standing up for science.
Victoria Murphy, events and campaigns officer
Victoria joined Sense About Science in September 2011 after working in the mining industry and science outreach in Australia, and the Science Museum London. Victoria will be involved in organising Sense About Science’s annual events, VoYS workshops, and help run campaigns including Libel Reform and Ask For Evidence.
Leonor Sierra, international science and policy manager
Leonor has a degree in Natural Sciences and a PhD from Cambridge University, where she specialised in Physics. She joined Sense About Science in February 2008 as Scientific Liaison and in 2010, Leonor took on the role of Science and Policy Manager. Her responsibilities included scrutiny of science policy, responding to consultations and coordinating “Making Sense of” guides. Since the beginning of 2011 she also manages the development of Sense About Science's international work.
Read some of Leonor's articles here
Julia Wilson, Development Manager
Julia is Development Manager at Sense About Science. She is responsible for Sense About Science's fundraising activities including overseeing our partnerships, identifying opportunities to work with new organizations, and the future direction of our ongoing programmes of work. Julia previously coordinated the Voice of Young Science programme where she headed a campaign that pressured the W.H.O. to respond to the promotion of homeopathy for serious diseases in Africa, and has held many Standing up for Science media workshops in the UK and internationally including South Africa. Julia has a degree in Biology from the University of Manchester and joined the Sense About Science team in April 2009.
Current volunteers
Brian Blood
Brian has a degree in Physics from Queen Mary, London University and a doctorate from Oxford University where he researched the action of cardiac glycosides on the contractility of cardiac muscle. Following post-doctoral research as a member of the cardiac electro-physiology team led by the eminent British biologist and founding member of Save British Science, Denis Noble, Brian spent thirty years running a musical instrument manufacturing firm and performing professionally on TV, radio, film, recordings and concert platforms as a recorder player. He began working as a volunteer for Sense About Science in December 2010, since when he has been developing the CMS database that supports our events, campaigns, projects and general client relationships.
Philippa Shelton
Philippa joined Sense About Science in January 2012. She graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2011 having read biology and achieved the best academic performance in both her second and final year. She has been working with those attending the AAAS conference in Canada, in February 2012, assisting in media coverage analysis and forming the presentation. Philippa is also helping to design a leaflet for the Libel Reform Campaign and has joined the panel to review a new publication on evidence based medicine.
Rhianna Goozee
Rhianna joined Sense About Science in January 2012. She graduated in 2009 with a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, where she specialised in Psychology. After graduating she worked as a Graduate Mental Health Worker for the NHS. She is currently funded by an MRC 1+3 studentship to carry out a Master’s degree in Psychiatric Research, followed by a PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. At Sense About Science she has been carrying out general office duties and researching for a new project ‘Is there a link?’.
James Nelson
James joined Sense About Science in April 2012. He is currently studying International Politics at King’s College London, with an interest in the role policy plays in British healthcare. At Sense About Science he is conducting research into evidence based medicine and helping with the Ask For Evidence and Libel Reform campaigns and other administrative support.
Recent volunteers
Rhys Morgan
I love working with such a committed team of like-minded people. The work that Sense About Science does is vital - giving scientists a real voice to counter the pseudoscience we find all too often in the newspapers - advertorials, reprinted press releases, biased journalists stating opinion as fact. Being able to volunteer gave me an idea of just how much work goes into tackling just these problems. As someone with a chronic illness, I understand how vulnerable patients can be when looking for a treatment. I’ve run a few campaigns against various types of alternative medicine which are not only ineffective, but can actively harm patients. When I’m not volunteering for Sense About Science, I’m studying towards my chemistry, biology, psychology and maths A levels.
Mark Brook
Mark worked at Sense About Science from September 2011 - January 2012. He became interested in public outreach and scientific policy while studying for an Astrophysics Ph.D. While volunteering for Sense About Science in 2010, he undertook a Medical Statistics MSc. While working for Sense About Science he has been involved in a number of activities, including: issues surrounding the restructuring of the ACMD - including drafting evidence to parliamentary select committees, drafting a peer-review guide for early–career researchers, editing documents, including the annual ‘Celebrities and Science’ publication, organising workshops, annual lecture, and annual reception, and website management.
Emma Bell
Emma graduated from King's College London in 2011 having read biomedical science. She won the 3rd year Biomedical Science prize for the best academic performance and was nominated for a European SET award. She has been assisting with the launch of our new campaign Ask for Evidence, working on some of our publications and writing website content.
Lewis Dean
Lewis joined the volunteer scheme at Sense About Science in March 2011. He has a PhD from the University of St. Andrews in evolutionary biology and has been a Science and Engineering Ambassador for four years. He was involved in a range of activities at Sense About Science, including working with the Libel Reform Campaign, drafting publications, writing web content, handling enquiries and media calls and assisting with the 2011 annual lecture.
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