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A woman with long blonde hair and light skin looks at the camera, wearing a light grey top. She is indoors with a neutral background. This is Dr Emma Poole.

Dr Emma Poole

Bye-Fellow, Director of Studies

Dr Emma Poole

Bye-Fellow, Director of Studies

Emma obtained her PhD from Cambridge University, Department of Pathology, where she studied the protein-protein interactions of Influenza A virus polymerase. After a period of time at St George’s Hospital Medical School studying immune evasion mechanism of paramyxoviruses, she returned to Cambridge University. Emma then worked in the Department of Medicine at Cambridge University where she worked on Human Cytomegalovirus. In the Department of Medicine she worked as a Senior Research Associate researching the molecular mechanisms of Human Cytomegalovirus latency. In 2023 she was appointed an Associate Professor at the University of Cambridge, Department of Pathology, where she continues to study Human Cytomegalovirus latency with a view to the development of novel therapeutics.

Dr Sara Silvestri, a woman with wavy brown hair and fair skin, looks at the camera with a slight smile. She is indoors and the background is softly blurred.

Dr Sara Silvestri

Bye-Fellow, Director of Studies

Dr Sara Silvestri

Bye-Fellow, Director of Studies

Dr Sara Silvestri is interested in the contested meaning and multifaceted roles of religion in international relations, with particular attention to Islam and the Euro-Mediterranean region. Located at the intersection between IR, Politics, and Sociology, her research, publications and teaching are concerned with how religious identities, symbols and political theologies impact global governance; the way faith-based networks, social movements, and secular international institutions relate to each other; and the evolution of public policies responding to the challenges of migration, multiculturalism, Islamism, and terrorism.

Sara is based between London, where she is Senior lecturer in International Politics at City University, and Cambridge, where she undertook her PhD (at St John’s College) and ESRC Post-Doc. In Cambridge she is currently Bye Fellow and Director of Studies in HSPS (Politics) at St Edmund’s College and collaborates with the POLIS department and the Divinity faculty. Sara also held visiting positions at the Cambridge Muslim College, the University of Bristol, the Univ. of Padua, and was a Marie Curie Fellow in Paris.

After her first degree in Arts (La Sapienza University, Rome) and qualifying as a journalist, Sara went to the University of Cambridge to undertake and MPhil in EU affairs and PhD and Post-Doc on the Politics of and about Islam in Europe. She also specialised in EU migration policies at the ULB (Belgium). She then became interested in role of Christians (especially but not only the Catholic Church) in the governance of migration and refugee flows when she was a Research Associate of the Von Hügel Institute and a member of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Global Human movement .

Dr Silvestri has collaborated extensively with the policy and media world in her areas of expertise. She has worked in the Cabinet of the EU Commission President, has been a Research Associate at Chatham House (London); she has served as an advisor to the Brussels think tank European Policy Centre and the Annal Lindh Foundation for Intercultural Dialogue (Alexandria, Egypt) and as a 'global expert' for the UN Alliance of Civilisations. Sara currently serves as a Trustee of the Centre for Catholic Social Thought and Practice and of the Council on Christian Approaches to Defence and Disarmament.

Her research has been funded inter alia by the ESRC, British Academy, British Council, Luce Foundation, FCDO, European Commission, Caritas Internationalis, the European Science Foundation.

Dr Johannes Lenhard, a young man with short brown hair and glasses, wearing a white T-shirt and dark cardigan, sits and smiles softly at the camera. A blurred bookcase is visible in the background.

Dr Johannes Lenhard

Bye-Fellow

Dr Johannes Lenhard

Bye-Fellow

Research Affiliate and Co-Director of VentureESG

Dr Johannes Lenhard is affiliate lecturer and researcher at the University of Cambridge. He is research affiliate at the Minderoo Center for Technology and Democracy and the co-director of VentureESG. He has recently published a monograph on people experiencing homelessness in Paris (Making Better Lives), a co-authored book on diversity and inclusion in venture capital and tech (Better Venture) and his forthcoming book on the ‘Ethics of venture capital investors’ is under contract with Columbia University Press. He writes regular for a variety of journalistic outlets and runs the non-profit CHIRN (Cambridge Homelessness Impact Research Network).

A smiling woman with short dark hair, identified as Sister Gemma Simmonds, wears a dark jumper over a purple and white patterned top and stands before a bookcase filled with various books.

Sr Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ

Bye-Fellow

Sr Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ

Bye-Fellow

Gemma Simmonds is a sister of the Congregation of Jesus.  She is a senior research fellow at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology in Cambridge, UK, where she is director of the Religious Life Institute, teaching Christian spirituality and pastoral theology. An international speaker and lecturer, she is an honorary fellow of Durham University, past president of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain and chair of trustees of the ecumenical Community of St. Anselm based at Lambeth Palace, London.  Gemma is an ecumenical canon of the Church in Wales and lectured in theology at Heythrop College, University of London from 2005 until its closure in 2018, specialising in Christian spirituality.  She has trained candidates for religious life and ordination in the Catholic and Anglican churches and been a spiritual director and retreat giver for over 30 years.

Gemma has been a missionary in Brazil, a chaplain in the Universities of Cambridge and London and a chaplaincy volunteer in Holloway Prison for 25 years.  She is a regular broadcaster on religious matters on the BBC, Radio Maria England and other radio and television networks.

Recent publications include:

Conspiracy Theories and Ignatian Discernment’ in Martin Dojčár ed., How Do We Discern Conspiracy Theories? (Trnava University Press, 2023)

Contributions on ‘What it Means to be Human’ and ‘Living a Religious Life’ in Peter Vardy ed., The Philosophers’ Daughters, (London, Darton, Longman and Todd, 2023)

‘Religieus Leven: de Toekomst Onderscheiden’ in Henk Witte and Arnold Smeets eds., Religieus leven met toekomst, (Berne Media, Tilburg University, 2023)

Dancing at the Still Point: Retreat Practices for Busy Lives (London, SPCK, July 2021)

Religious Life: Discerning the Future (with María Calderón-Muñoz), Joint Project Report for the Religious Life Institute and Centre for Catholic Studies, Durham University, 2020

‘Reflections on Mary and Mission’ in Susan Lucas ed., God’s Church in the World: the Gift of Catholic Mission, (London, Canterbury Press, 2020)

‘Mystical Ecclesiology’ in Mark McIntosh and Edward Howells, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology, (Oxford, OUP, 2020)

Perfectae Caritatis’ in Richard Gaillardetz, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Second Vatican Council, (Cambridge, CUP, 2020)

‘Mary Ward: a Hidden Life in Painting’ in Kathryn Kerby-Fulton and Kate Bugyis eds., Women Leaders and Intellectuals of the Medieval World, (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020)

‘Women at the Grassroots’ Level of Church Leadership’, in Gunter Prüller-Jagenteufel et al., (eds.), Towards Just Gender Relations: Rethinking the Role of Women in Church and Society, Religion and Transformation in Contemporary European Society, vol. 13, (Vienna University Press, 2019), 29-36

‘Hearing the Call: a Theology of Vocation’ in Kevin J. Alban, ed., A Festschrift for Wilfrid McGreal, (Rome, Edizioni Carmelitane, 2019)

The Way of Ignatius: a Prayer Journey through Lent, (London, SPCK, 2018)

Dr Christopher Williamson, a man with long brown hair and a beard, stands outdoors looking at the camera. He is wearing a blue T-shirt, with greenery and flowers visible in the blurred background.

Dr Christopher Williamson

Bye-Fellow

Dr Christopher Williamson

Bye-Fellow

Chris is a Research Associate in the Centre for Photonic Devices and Sensors specialising in liquid crystal displays and scalable manufacturing processes. He completed his PhD in electronic engineering at St. Edmund’s College.

He has developed an electrically switchable window capable of reflecting heat, controlling privacy, and displaying images while using no continuous power. To commercialise this innovation, he cofounded Flexypix in 2016 and was awarded an Enterprise Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering to pursue this venture.

His wider interests include playing the guitar, photography, and motorcycles.

Sister Maria Cimperman, RSCJ, with short brown hair, wears a teal blazer with black trim, a cross necklace, and a brooch, smiling warmly against a plain light background.

Sister Dr Maria Cimperman RSCJ

Senior Research Associate

Sister Dr Maria Cimperman RSCJ

Senior Research Associate

Dr. Maria Cimperman is a member of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (RSCJ). Her Master of Divinity is from the University of Notre Dame, Licentiate in Sacred Theology from Weston Jesuit School of Theology and PhD in Theological Ethics from Boston College. A faculty member at Catholic Theological Union (Chicago, USA), she recently received promotion to full Professor of Theological Ethics and Consecrated Life.

Dr Cimperman is the author of three books: When God’s People Have HIV/AIDS: An Approach to Ethics;  Social Analysis for the 21st Century: How Faith Becomes Action;  and Religious Life For Our World: Creating Communities of Hope. She also co-edited Engaging Our Diversity: Interculturality and Consecrated Life Today. She presents nationally and internationally.

In addition to theological ethics, Maria’s passion is theology of consecrated life. Dr. Cimperman served for 8 years as the founding Director of the Center for the Study of Consecrated Life at CTU. During 2021-2022, Maria was one of two women religious theologians [with Dr Gemma Simmonds, CJ] and two men religious theologians serving on the UISG-USG [International Union of Superiors General and Union of Superiors General] Synod Synthesis Commission which read and together prepared a synthesis of the responses from religious around the globe for the two Unions.   She serves on the Editorial Board of Review for Religious and the Board of Directors of CARA (Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate).  This Fall she will continue at CTU while beginning a position at UISG in Rome coordinating their global Synodality Initiative.

 

The Revd Dr Greg Peters, a smiling man with glasses and a beard, wearing a light blue button-up shirt, stands outdoors with green trees and blurred people in the background.

Rev Dr Greg Peters

Research Associate

Rev Dr Greg Peters

Research Associate

My research is on the history and theology of Christian monasticism, mainly how monastic theology is a unique theological methodology. I also research the history of monasticism and spirituality in the Anglican tradition. I actively contribute to academic, professional, and ecclesial communities.

Rev Dr Peters is Professor of Medieval and Spiritual Theology in the Torrey Honors College at Biola University, USA. He is also the Servants of Christ Research Professor of Monastic Studies and Ascetical Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary, USA. He is the author of "Reforming the Monastery: Protestant Theologies of the Religious Life," "The Monkhood of All Believers: The Monastic Foundation of Christian Spirituality," and "Peter of Damascus: Byzantine Monk and Spiritual Theologian," among other works. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Society of Anglican Theologians, the Executive Board of the American Benedictine Academy and is a board member of Anglican House Publishers. Professor Peters’ interest in Christian monasticism led him to pursue a Dottorato in Studi Monastici from the Pontificio Ateneo di Sant’Anselmo in Rome, the first non-monastic to earn the degree.

Though an expert on Christian monasticism, Professor Peters has also been involved in researching and writing on Anglicanism, including Edward Pusey’s support of the re-establishment of monasticism in the nineteenth-century Church of England and Anglican spirituality. To that end he has published "Anglican Spirituality: An Introduction" and several articles on Anglican monasticism. His interest in Anglicanism grew out of his appointment as Vicar of the Anglican Church of the Epiphany, La Mirada, USA.

Professor Peters is a Consulting Editor for the Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care, is on the Editorial Board of Magistra: A Journal of Women’s Spirituality in History and is a regular reviewer for the American Benedictine Review. In addition to his appointment at St Edmund’s College, he is a Visiting Scholar at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford.

Academic Profile

Publications

  • Greg Peters, Anglican Spirituality, 2024, Cascade Books
  • Greg Peters, The Monkhood of All Believers: The Monastic Foundation of Christian Spirituality, 2018, Baker Academic
  • Greg Peters, Peter of Damascus: Byzantine Monk and Spiritual Theologian, 2011, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies
  • Greg Peters, “The ‘Reanimation Principle’ of Edward Bouverie Pusey: The Re-Establishment of Monasticism in the Church of England,” 2025, Anglican and Episcopal History

 

Rev Dr Roger Abbott, a middle-aged man with glasses and a grey moustache, sits in front of a bookcase filled with books. He wears a light blue shirt and looks directly at the camera.

Rev Dr Roger Abbott

Senior Research Associate

Rev Dr Roger Abbott

Senior Research Associate

My research interests focus on the science-faith interface of natural hazards and disasters and theodicies. I also have research interest in the field of trauma studies, theologies of trauma and pastoral care of trauma.

The Rev. Dr. Abbott has an passionate academic and practical interest in the causation natural hazard related disasters, in the human responses to them, recovery from them and mitigation of them from the perspective of the science-faith intersection. From 2012-2021 he has carried out projects in Haiti following the devastating 2010 earthquake, exploring how survivors’ religious beliefs influenced their response to and recovery from that catastrophic event. From 2015 to 2019 he worked on projects in New Orleans, the Philippines, and in Somerset, exploring the influence of faith beliefs on survivors’ relationships with God, with their communities, and with the natural environment. Since 2020 to date he has been conducting a project around the impacts of fear, anger, trust and hope on Christians during the pandemic. He is also currently researching faith a resilience in a joint project between The Faraday Institute and the National Preparedness Commission. Following over thirty years of church pastoral ministry, Roger gained his Ph.D. in a practical theology of disaster response, from the University of Wales, Trinity & St. David. He has taught Master’s modules on the pastoral response to trauma, has run a consultancy on pastoral care of trauma, and has been an active responder to traumatic incidents in the UK since 1989. He is a member of the British and Irish Association for Practical Theologians, The Society for the Study of Theology, and The Society for the Study of Christian Ethics.

Publications

  • Abbott Roger et al What Good is God? Crises, faith, and resilience. 2020 Oxford: Monarch
  • Abbott, Roger Philip et al Narratives of Faith from the Haitian Earthquake. 2019 Abingdon: Routledge
  • Abbott, Roger Philip “‘I Will Show You My Faith by My Works’ 2019 Religions 10, 213
  • Abbott, Roger Philip. Sit On Our Hands, or Stand On Our Feet? 2013 . Eugene: Or.: Wipf & Stock
  • Abbott, Roger Philip. 2012. “Trauma, Compassion, and Community.” Practical Theology. 5.1: 31-46
Dr Ruth Bancewicz Headshot

Dr Ruth Bancewicz

Senior Research Associate

Dr Ruth Bancewicz

Senior Research Associate

I am the Church Engagement Director at the Faraday Institute, where my remit is to equip and encourage UK churches to include engagement with science as part of their regular ministry and mission.

Ruth studied Genetics at Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities, and (more recently) Theology, Ministry and Mission at Ridley Hall, Cambr. After graduating she was Development Officer for Christians in Science, at the same time as doing Postdoctoral Research at Edinburgh University. Ruth joined the Faraday Institute when it was founded in 2006, to develop resources for churches. She was appointed as the Faraday Church Engagement Director in 2018, remains a member of Christians in Science, and is an elected Fellow of their US counterpart, the American Scientific Affiliation. Her current theology studies are with Highland Theological College.

Academic Profile

Publications

  • R Bancewicz, The Works of the Lord: 52 biblical reflections on science, technology and creation, 2025, BRF
  • R Bancewicz, ‘Engaging the Church and Wider Christian Community in Science-Faith Dialogue’ in Global Perspectives on Science and Christianity, M Brownnutt & KR Fox (eds.), 2024, Langham Publishing
  • R Bancewicz, Wonders of the Living World: Curiosity, awe and the meaning of life, 2021, Lion Hudson
  • R Bancewicz, God in the Lab: How science enhances faith, 2015, Monarch
  • R Bancewicz, Test of FAITH: Spiritual Journeys with Scientists, 2009, Paternoster
Dr Mike Brownnutt, a man with short brown hair and a trimmed beard, smiles at the camera. He is wearing a light grey collared shirt and stands against a plain white background.

Dr Mike Brownnutt

Research Associate

Dr Mike Brownnutt

Research Associate

Mike Brownnutt obtained his first Master’s degree (MSci in physics) and his PhD (in experimental quantum mechanics) from Imperial College London, UK. He then worked at the University of Innsbruck for eight years, writing his habilitation on his research there, which developed scalable architectures for trapped-ion quantum computers. He completed a second Master’s degree (MA in theology from the University of Chester, UK) considering how faith is understood by various parties in discourse on the relationship between Christianity and science.

He spent seven years at the University of Hong Kong, serving as Associate Director of the Faith and Science Collaborative Research Forum, and researching framings for science and religion which do not pre-suppose Modernist assumptions. He now serves as Course Director of the Faraday Institute. In his spare time, he is working on a PhD (with University of Birmingham) on non-Modern philosophy of science and religion.

Dr Marc Neugröschel, a smiling, middle-aged man with a bald head, glasses, and a short beard, wearing a light blue button-up shirt, poses in front of a plain light background.

Dr Marc Neugröschel

Research Associate

Dr Marc Neugröschel

Research Associate

Dr. Marc Neugröschel is a Research Fellow in the ISGAP-Woolf Institute Fellowship Training Programme in Critical Contemporary Antisemitism Studies, Discrimination, and Human Rights. A sociologist, he earned his PhD and MA from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. Prior to this, he studied at RWTH University in Aachen, Germany, his birthplace and hometown. Additionally, he has worked as a journalist for German and Israeli English-language newspapers.

Dr Lydia Jaeger

Dr Lydia Jaeger

Research Associate

Dr Lydia Jaeger

Research Associate

My current research interests concern the epistemological and ethical implications of the doctrine of creation and the articulation between philosophy, the sciences and theology. In 2024, I was involved in setting up the Centre d'études et de recherche interdisciplinaire évangélique (CERIE).

After completing postgraduate studies in physics and mathematics at the University of Cologne (Germany) and in theology at the Seminary for Evangelical Theology in Vaux-sur-Seine (France), Lydia Jaeger obtained her Ph.D. in philosophy at the Sorbonne on the possible links between the concept of law of nature and religious presuppositions. She holds a permanent lectureship and is academic advisor and international relations officer at the Institut Biblique de Nogent-sur-Marne (France), and academic director of the Centre d’enseignement et de recherche interdisciplinaire évangélique en sciences, culture et théologie (CERIE). She is a research associate of St. Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge, a Faraday Associate of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion and a KLC Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology (all based in Cambridge, UK). Lydia Jaeger is the author of seven books and numerous articles on the relation between Christianity and the natural sciences. She has edited (or co-edited) nine collective volumes; among them is Lire la Bible aujourd’hui : Perspectives croisées sur les défis contemporains (Bibli’O, 2022 – English translation Zondervan Academic, 2024). Her book Ordinary Splendor: Living in God’s Creation was listed as a finalist in the 2024 Christianity Today Book Awards in the Theology (popular) category.

Academic Profile

Publications

  • Lydia Jaeger, Einstein, Polanyi and the Laws of Nature, West Conshohocken (PA): Templeton Foundation Press, 2010
  • Lydia Jaeger, What the Heavens Declare: Science in the Light of Creation, transl. Jonathan Vaughan, Eugene (OR), Wipf and Stock, 2012
  • Lydia Jaeger, Ordinary Splendor: Living in God's Creation, Bellingham [WA], Lexham Press, 2023
Dr Caleb Howard, a man with short brown hair and a beard, wearing a dark suit, light blue shirt, and striped tie, smiles at the camera against a plain black background.

Dr Caleb Howard

Associate Tutor, Bye-Fellow

Dr Caleb Howard

Associate Tutor, Bye-Fellow

I am an Assyriologist based at Tyndale House, Cambridge, researching scribal practices and onomastics (personal names) in ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant. At St Edmund’s I am a Bye-Fellow and Associate Tutor.

Dr J. Caleb Howard is an Assyriologist who studies the languages, texts, and history of ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant. He is a Research Fellow in Old Testament and Ancient Near East at Tyndale House, Cambridge, where he spends most of his time. He is also editor of Tyndale’s academic journal, Tyndale Bulletin. At St Edmund’s College, he is Bye-Fellow and Associate Tutor.

Dr Howard’s research focuses on two periods of ancient history and their textual corpora. First, he researches scribal practices in the Neo-Assyrian state, which flourished in northern Iraq, ca. 1000-600 B.C. His current book project investigates the mechanics of scribal production of Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions, the propaganda of the Assyrian state. The basis of this project is first-hand collation and photography of royal inscriptions of the king Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.) in various museum collections.

A part of Dr Howard’s research on the Neo-Assyrian empire is carried out within the framework of the Cambridge-LMU Strategic Partnership, one aim of which is to publish up-to-date editions of Assyrian royal inscriptions, both online and in print publications. In cooperation with Dr Jamie Novotny (LMU) and Professor A. Kirk Grayson (University of Toronto), Dr Howard is preparing an updated edition of the royal inscriptions of Ashurnasirpal II. Transcriptions and translations of these inscriptions will be made available to scholars and the public via an online repository of cuneiform texts called Oracc (Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus).

Dr Howard’s second major research focus is personal names in the Levant in the second and first millennia B.C. At Tyndale House, Cambridge, he is part of a team of researchers collecting personal names from relevant primary sources and analysing them, to see what they tell us about the linguistic and social history of the region. This work will be documented in an open-access database and in a set of print publications. Dr Howard’s main research contribution to the project is a study of the personal names in about five hundred cuneiform tablets from the ancient city of Alalakh (Tell Atchana) in southern Turkey. These texts contain thousands of personal names, mainly derived from one or more West Semitic languages and from the Hurrian language. These names reveal aspects of language, religion, and culture which would otherwise be inaccessible to modern research.

Academic Profile

 

 

Dr William Farr, a man with short, light brown hair, is smiling at the camera. He is wearing a light blue collared shirt and standing in front of a neutral, mottled background.

Dr William Farr

Fellow

Dr William Farr

Fellow

I am a UTO Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education. 

William initially worked as a primary school teacher after a degree from Sussex and UC Berkeley. Additionally, William works on the Primary PGCE and teaches on the UG Education Tripos, and has Masters and PhD students. In research, he collaborates across the University, Education and Healthcare sectors in various Chief Investigator or Co-applicant roles, mainly on the topic of assessment and diagnostic pathways for children with possible autism, or other neurodivergent conditions.

Dr Neville Bolt, an older man with grey hair and glasses, wearing a blazer and dark shirt, is seated indoors, holding a pen to his lips and looking thoughtful.

Dr Neville Bolt

Friend of St Edmund's

Dr Neville Bolt

Friend of St Edmund's

Neville is the Director of the King’s Centre for Strategic Communications (KCSC), the leading global centre of academic expertise in Strategic Communications. He is Reader in Strategic Communications and Convenor of the Masters programme in Strategic Communications in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. And he is Senior Fellow at SCERU, University of Tokyo. Bolt is Editor-in-Chief of Defence Strategic Communications, the peer reviewed academic journal of NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence.

He has convened the Masters course Evolution of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency and the International Relations course Transnational Movements, Networks and Revolutionary Strategy. He supervises PhD students researching topics including empathy in international negotiations; trust in the revolutionary theatre; counter-conduct & democratic dissent; materiality of communication in urban space; Cold War metaphor of containment; strategic communications policies in Afghanistan; phenomenology of the information environment; constructing political memory; jazz diplomacy in the Cold War; memory construction in Latvian independence; influence networks in South Caucasus; Brazil’s Amazonia dilemma. He was the Teaching Excellence Award Winner 2017.

Much of his career was spent as a television journalist and producer-director at the BBC, ITV, and CBC (Canada). Working in news and current affairs, he specialised as a producer of war zone documentaries, covering conflicts in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Indian subcontinent. Later he created strategic communications campaigns for Britain’s Labour Party; Amnesty International; the African National Congress (ANC)/Anti-Apartheid Movement. He served too as communications advisor to UEFA Champions League football.

His book The Violent Image: Insurgent Propaganda and the New Revolutionaries (Columbia UP) was published in 2012, 2nd revised edition, 2020 (Oxford UP), winning the CHOICE ‘outstanding academic status award’. Unmapping the 21st Century: Between Networks and the State (Bristol UP) was published in 2022. He is writing Strategic Communications: Information, Disinformation & The Human Condition, and producing a volume of field-defining Perspectives from Defence Strategic Communications journal to appear late 2022.

Dr Pedro Juan Rivera Torres Headshot

Dr Pedro Juan Rivera Torres

Bye-Fellow

Dr Pedro Juan Rivera Torres

Bye-Fellow

My research is focused on the application of complexity science to the solution of engineering problems. I've been working in using AI, particularly intelligent systems, to modeling and simulation of industrial processes, smart grids, and other systems.

Pedro was born in Ponce and raised in Coamo, on the island of Puerto Rico. After completing his Ph.D. in Telematic Engineering from Universidade de Vigo (Spain) in 2017 he returned to the University of Puerto Rico’s main campus (Río Piedras) as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science (2017-2019), where he had taught Computer Engineering at UPR-Mayagüez in 2008. He was an Associate Researcher and later a Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2023) at the Center for Complexity Sciences (C3) of the National Autonomous University of México (UNAM), specializing in Self-Organizing Systems and Complexity-Based Telecommunications Systems, under the supervision of Prof. Carlos Gershenson García. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the use of Probabilistic Boolean Networks and a means of modelling Manufacturing Systems, especially those under preventive maintenance. This dissertation obtained the prestigious Doctoral Excellence Award (Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado) and the ‘Doctor Internacional’ distinction. He has a professional experience spanning more than 20 years, that includes working for the aerospace, biopharmaceutical and other manufacturing industries, as an engineer.

Pedro holds a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (2001), a Graduate Certificate in Project Management (University of Wisconsin, 2004), a M.Sc. in Engineering Management (University of Wisconsin, 2005), a Master of Telematic Engineering (2008), Diploma of Advanced Studies, (2008), and Ph.D. in Telematic Engineering (2017) from Universidade de Vigo, Spain, a Master of Computer Engineering (2021) and a Master of Telecommunications Engineering from Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (2022) and is working towards a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. He is a licensed telecommunications engineer in Spain, and a member of the Official College of Telecommunications Engineers since 2018 (COIT). He collaborates with scientists from the US, Puerto Rico, Spain, Cuba, Mexico and Brazil.

Publications

  • Rivera Torres, P.J., Chen, C., Macías, J.E., Rodríguez, S., Prieto, J., Llanes, O., Gershenson, C., Kanaan, S., A learning Probabilistic Boolean Network model of a smart grid with applications to system maintenance., 2024, MDPI/Energies, https://doi.org/10.3390/en17246399
  • Rivera Torres, P.J., Gershenson, C, Kanaan, S. Fault Detection and Isolation in Smart-Grid Networks of Intelligent Power Routers Modeled as Probabilistic Boolean Networks, 2023, Wiley/Complexity, https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/6690805.
  • Rivera Torres, P.J., Gershenson García, C., Kanaan, S. Reinforcement Learning with Probabilistic Boolean Network Models of Smart Grid Devices. 2022, Wiley/Complexity,
  • Guerrero, D., Rivera Torres, P., Febres, G. L., Gershenson García, C. Towards a Measure for Characterizing the Informational Content of Audio Signals and the Relation Between Complexity and Auditory Encoding, 2021.

Awards & Recognitions

  • Maria Skłodowska Curie Actions Fellow - University of Salamanca, Spain (2024 to present).
  • 2020 Technical Sciences Award, National Academy of Sciences of Cuba. Research Team Member.
  • Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado - 2017 Universidade de Vigo
  • "Las 20 mejores de 2012" – Awarded #10 of 20 among the best musical productions of 2012 for the album “Café Colao Orchestra, Vol. 1”, by Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular de Puerto Rico, 2012.
  • "Las 20 mejores de 2016" – Awarded #14 of 20 among the best musical productions of 2016 for the album “Yo no quiero… ser normal”, by Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular de Puerto Rico, 2016.

 

Dr Javad Shamsi Headshot

Dr Javad Shamsi

Associate Tutor, Bye-Fellow

Dr Javad Shamsi

Associate Tutor, Bye-Fellow

Javad Shamsi is deeply interested in light-matter interactions, particularly in tiny semiconductors known as Quantum Dots (QDs), which possess intriguing properties for lighting technologies such as LEDs, lasers, and quantum light sources.

Javad completed his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at the University of Tehran, where he undertook a research project under the supervision of Prof. Mohammad Reza Ganjali. He then pursued a PhD at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the University of Genoa, focusing on semiconducting nanocrystals and their optoelectronic properties. Following his PhD, Javad joined the Hyperion ERC project led by Prof. Sam Stranks at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, where he researched quantum-confined perovskite nanoplatelets for lighting technologies, including LEDs and quantum lighting, from 2018 to 2022. After completing his postdoctoral research in September 2022, he stepped away from intensive research roles and accepted a position as the EPSRC Programme Grant Manager in the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge. Although he initially intended to take a brief break of about a year, his plans were disrupted in October 2023, when he tragically lost his mother in an accident. This profound loss had a significant emotional impact, leaving him unable to re-enter the research sector immediately.

Recently, Javad began teaching energy materials courses to MPhil students in the Department of Materials and Physics at the University of Cambridge. He also took on a part-time lecturing role at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. In 2019, he joined St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge, initially as a PDRA, and later as a Tutor and Bye-Fellow, providing pastoral support to approximately 40 students each term. He has also delivered several public lectures on his research, making it more accessible to a wider audience and contributing to broader societal benefits. Additionally, Javad is the director of ShamsLab, a consultancy specialising in energy, energy materials, nanotechnology, and quantum technologies, with a focus on tackling the pressing challenges within the energy sector.

At the college, aside from engaging in intellectual discussions with peers and providing pastoral support to students in their academic lives, Javad is keen to explore his interest in understanding the nature of light - something beyond the ripples of the electromagnetic field. This work bridges his expertise with his religion, which to some extent aligns with the philosophy of Ishraq. Inspired by Georges Lemaître, he believes St Edmund’s College is the ideal place to contemplate the connection between science and religion.

Academic Profile

Dr Caterina Milo

Dr Caterina Milo

Research Associate

Dr Caterina Milo

Research Associate

My research interests lie in health law and ethics, particularly informed consent, doctor-patient relationship, and reproductive ethics widely considered.

Dr Milo is Lecturer in Law at the School of Law, University of Sheffield, where she leads the Health Law Research Group. Before joining Sheffield, she was College Assistant Professor and Fellow in Law at Robinson College-University of Cambridge, and previously Lecturer at the University of Exeter Law School. She holds a PhD in Health Law from Durham Law School; a MA in Bioethics and Medical Law (St Mary’s University-Twickenham); an integrated MA in Law (University of Siena, Italy); and a Diploma in Legal Studies (University of Oxford).

Academic Profile

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Dr Yuyan Jiang

Post Doctoral Research Associate

Dr Yuyan Jiang

Post Doctoral Research Associate

My work focuses on inequalities in education, intergenerational income mobility, and policies to narrow the socio-economic gap in education and the labour market. I am currently working on evaluating the My Village programme delivered by the People’s Action for Learning (PAL) Network.

Yuyan is a Research Associate at the Faculty of Education, working on the evaluation of the My Village programme. Yuyan’s research interests include educational inequalities, social mobility, and policy interventions to reduce socio-economic disparities in education and the labour market. She is an ONS Accredited Researcher, proficient in analysing large longitudinal datasets. Her PhD research focused on intergenerational income mobility in England, exploring the impacts of educational achievement, bursaries, and the COVID-19 pandemic on social mobility.

Academic Profile

A large brick building with multiple chimneys and dormer windows sits surrounded by lush green gardens, where flowering plants bloom under a partly cloudy sky. A curved path leads to the entrance, ready for the Master's welcome.

Dr Liam Saddington

Director of Studies

Dr Liam Saddington

Director of Studies

Liam is Director of Studies for Geography

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