Creating connections in Scotland

Dame Julie Maxton CBE, Executive Director, The Royal Society

Dame Julie Maxton is the Executive Director of the Royal Society, the first woman in 350 years to hold the post. Before taking up her position at the Royal Society in 2011 Julie was Registrar at the University of Oxford, the first woman in 550 years in the role.

She is an Honorary Fellow of University College Oxford, a Bencher of the Middle Temple, a Freeman of the Goldsmith’s Company and a Board member of Sense about Science. In the past she has also been on the Boards of the Alan Turing Institute, Blavatnik School of Government in Oxford, Haberdasher Aske’s School (Elstree), Engineering UK, Charities Aid Foundation and The Faraday Institute.

Originally trained as a barrister at the Middle Temple, Julie combined a career as a practising lawyer with that of an academic, holding a number of senior academic positions, including those of Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Academic and other recognition Julie has received include a CBE (2017) and Honorary Degrees from the Universities of Huddersfield, Warwick, Canterbury, Hull and Bristol.

She is the author of several books and numerous articles concerned with trusts, equity, commercial and property law.

Dr Rebekah Widdowfield, Chief Executive, Royal Society of Edinburgh

Rebekah has been Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy, since September 2017. Rebekah worked in academia for a number of years researching homelessness, rural poverty and social exclusion, before joining the Scottish Government in 2001 to pursue a more applied research career. She became a senior civil servant in 2008 in which capacity she served as Head of Rural and Environmental Science and Analysis and as Chief Researcher with responsibility for social research across Government before moving to policy in 2013 as Head of Higher Education and Science. Rebekah supported a number of strategic advances during her time in Government including: leading development of the first carbon accounting of a financial budget; instigating a climate change behaviours research programme and; establishing and then working with the Commission on Widening Access to support a more holistic approach to enhancing access to university to students from deprived backgrounds. Rebekah is a trustee of the Centre for Homelessness Impact and a member of the Board of Management of City of Glasgow College.

Chris van der Kuyl CBE, co-Founder and Chairman, 4J Studios

Chris van der Kuyl is one of Scotland’s leading entrepreneurs working across the technology, media, gaming and entertainment sectors.  Chris is most notably co-Founder and Chairman of multiple award-winning games developer 4J Studios, best known for developing Minecraft for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo games consoles. He and fellow co-Founder Paddy Burns launched Chroma Ventures, the investment arm of 4J Studios, in 2021 to consolidate their diverse and growing portfolio of investments.

Chris is also Chairman of; Puny Astronaut who are bringing their first game to market; TVSquared, a fast-growing data analytics company; Broker Insights, a start-up insurtech company; and Parsley Box who provide cupboard stored ready meals. He sits on the boards of; Blippar, a technology company specialising in augmented reality (AR); aquaculture technology specialists Ace Aquatec, Stormcloud Games, and independent games development studio and ADV Holdings, developer and operator of Wild Shore water-based adventure sites. 

Alongside his commercial roles, he was the founding Chairman of Entrepreneurial Scotland and is currently a member of multiple advisory and local charity boards. Elected as one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2013, he has also been awarded honorary degrees from; the University of Dundee; Abertay University, the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Strathclyde. Chris was formally recognised for his contribution to technology in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020, becoming a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Sherry Coutu CBE, entrepreneur, Chair of Founders4Schools, Workfinder and the Scaleup Institute, UK

Sherry Coutu is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who serves on the boards of companies, charities, and universities.

She is currently a non-executive Director of Pearson plc, London Stock Exchange plc, DCMS and Raspberry Pi Trading. Sherry has decades of experience chairing Remuneration Committees of FTSE plcs, acting as Senior Independent Director and Nominations Committee chair and serving on audit committees. Philanthropically, she supports Founders4Schools, Digital Boost, Raspberry Pi Foundation and Cancer Research UK.

Sherry has an MBA from Harvard, an MSc (with distinction) from the London School of Economics, and a BA (Hons with distinction) from the University of British Columbia, Canada. She has been awarded Honourary PhDs from The University of Bristol, Manchester University and the Open University for her work in Education and the Economy.

She was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to entrepreneurship in the New Year's Honours List 2013.

Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne, founder of Genius Foods

Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne is the creator of the first fresh gluten free bread on the market and Founder of Genius Foods Ltd, the UK’s leading brand in fresh gluten and dairy free bakery products. She is an experienced Executive and Non Executive Board Director, Food Scientist and Ingredient Functionality Expert, Innovator of great tasting gluten and dairy free food, Author, Chef and Mother.

Lucinda is dedicated to helping people with dietary restrictions, enjoy a mainstream diet and lifestyle. She is committed to supporting scaling businesses, budding entrepreneurs, and finding sustainable, ground-breaking food solutions to improve public health and well-being. Lucinda is also passionate about the important role science plays in business growth and efficiency. Lucinda is also Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence at Edinburgh University, Board Director of The Scale Up Institute, and on the Scotland Food and Drink Board.

Callum Murray, CEO, Amiqus

Callum Murray is the CEO of Amiqus, an award-winning purpose driven company, helping people get to work on what matters, faster. Amiqus was founded in 2015 after Callum experienced the civil court process first-hand as a litigant and was motivated to help improve access to legal information and support. Amiqus was supported by the RSE Enterprise fellowship programme in 2016, since then, Amiqus' staff and client compliance platform is now trusted by hundreds of organisations across multiple sectors, is accredited and recommended by regulatory bodies across the UK and counts government and the NHS as clients.

Richard Boyd, CEO, Invizius

Richard Boyd studied Engineering Science at Oxford in the late 80s with Professor Brian Bellhouse who not only founded Oxford's very successful Institute of Biomedical Engineering, but also the University’s most successful ever spinout, Powderject, which was sold for over £0.5bn. Richard’s career began in naval shipbuilding on the Clyde before an MBA at INSEAD led to management consulting specialised in helping large tech companies across Europe and the US to accelerate their R&D and top-line growth. Afterwards, inspired by Professor Bellhouse, he started consulting to Universities and technology spin-outs in Scotland while looking for opportunities to start a medtech business. In 2010 he co-founded VueKlar Cardiovascular with Professor Andreas Melzer at Dundee, which developed an imaging technology specifically for cardiovascular implants. They came close to exiting the business but ultimately it failed. Undeterred, in 2018 he co-founded Invizius with Dr Andy Herbert from Edinburgh University. They have just completed a £5.3m Series A investment round to get into the clinic in 2023 with their kidney dialysis product. 

Neil Martin, CEO and Founder, Vector Photonics

Neil Martin is CEO and a founder of Vector Photonics, a producer of PCSEL-based surface emitting semiconductor lasers – acknowledged as the most significant innovation in laser design and manufacture for 30 years.

Vector Photonics is a spin out of the University of Glasgow. Its broad wavelength range PCSELs are low cost, robust, and high power – a combination of key characteristics which gives a huge advantage over current semiconductor laser technologies.

Neil led Vector Photonics to achieve a £1.6m equity investment, alongside government funding, taking its total seed funding round to over £4m.

Previously, Neil was CEO and founding member of CST Global, a compound semiconductor fab. This was another successful spin out of the University of Glasgow, which he exited to a Swedish quoted company in 2017.

Neil has held senior marketing and design roles in blue-chip, semiconductor companies. He has a background in design, international product management and marketing.

Mike Ambinder, Principal Experimental Psychologist, Valve Corporation

Mike Ambinder is a Principal Experimental Psychologist at Valve Corporation. He has BA in Computer Science and Psychology from Yale University and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Illinois. At Valve since 2008, he works on the application of psychological knowledge and methodologies to game design, statistical analysis and machine learning approaches, and basic research into Brain-Computer Interfaces.

Dr Mahnaz Arvaneh, University of Sheffield

Mahnaz received a PhD on Advanced Brain-computer Interface from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore in 2013. From 2009 to 2013, she was also an attached researcher at the Institute for Infocomm Research, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore. Thereafter, she moved to University College Dublin where she worked as a lecturer in Biomedical Engineering in 2013. From 2014 to 2015, Mahnaz worked as a research fellow in the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. Since September 2015, she has been a lecturer in the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield.

Mahnaz’ expertise is in Brain-computer interface, neural signal processing, and their applications in monitoring and enhancing physical and mental health. She is the director of Physiological Signals and Systems Laboratory at University of Sheffield. Her work on neural interfaces has received high-profile media coverage, e.g. BBC Tech Tent, BBC Radio 4, Sky News, etc. She has published more than 50 highly cited papers in both engineering and neuroscience top-ranked journals and conferences. Since March 2018, she has been serving as an associate editor in IEEE transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. She also co-edited a book on brain-computer interface in IET, and contributed in Royal Society Neural Interfaces Perspective, launched in September 2019.

Dame Anne Rafferty

Former High Court Judge of the United Kingdom

Dame Anne Rafferty DBE retired from the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in July 2020.

She was called to the Bar in 1973, practiced in criminal law, took Silk (made a QC) in 1990 and was elected a Bencher of Gray’s Inn in 1998. She was appointed a Recorder in 1991, a Deputy High Court Judge in 1996 and a Judge of the High Court (Queens Bench Division) in 2000.

Dame Anne was the Presiding Judge of the South Eastern Circuit between 2003 and 2006, was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal and made a Privy Counsellor in 2011. She was Vice Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Commission from 2017-2020 and she chaired the Judicial College from 2014 to 2020.

She now chairs the Royal Society’s steering committee on judicial primers, part of the Science and the law programme.

She is also a member of the King’s Counsel Appointments panel (applications for Silk), is a member of the Judicial Appointments Commission’s outreach scheme to encourage appointments to the judiciary which embrace diversity and is the Inspector of the Iraq Fatality Investigations. She has been Chancellor of the University of Sheffield since 2015.

Dame Julie Maxton CBE, Executive Director, The Royal Society

Dame Julie Maxton is the Executive Director of the Royal Society, the first woman in 350 years to hold the post. Before taking up her position at the Royal Society in 2011 Julie was Registrar at the University of Oxford, the first woman in 550 years in the role.

She is an Honorary Fellow of University College Oxford, a Bencher of the Middle Temple, a Freeman of the Goldsmith’s Company and a Board member of Sense about Science. In the past she has also been on the Boards of the Alan Turing Institute, Blavatnik School of Government in Oxford, Haberdasher Aske’s School (Elstree), Engineering UK, Charities Aid Foundation and The Faraday Institute.

Originally trained as a barrister at the Middle Temple, Julie combined a career as a practising lawyer with that of an academic, holding a number of senior academic positions, including those of Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Academic and other recognition Julie has received include a CBE (2017) and Honorary Degrees from the Universities of Huddersfield, Warwick, Canterbury, Hull and Bristol.

She is the author of several books and numerous articles concerned with trusts, equity, commercial and property law.

Professor Sarah Skerratt

Royal Society of Edinburgh

Professor Sarah Skerratt is Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE). A familiar face to the RSE, having been the Director of Programmes for two years, heading up research, international, enterprise, policy, public engagement, Fellowship and Young Academy teams. She also delivers to the ‘Inclusive Public Service’ workstream of the RSE’s Post-Covid Futures Commission. Prior to this, Sarah was Director of Policy Engagement at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), where she worked for just over two decades. Sarah is Professor of Rural Society and Policy.

For 30+ years, Sarah has researched rural community resilience, disempowerment, poverty and rural mental health. She has enhanced rural and national policies and made a difference in rural communities via robust data, particularly lived-experienced evidence. Sarah works with Scottish Government task forces, Scottish and UK Parliaments, universities, private, public and third sectors, communities and development agencies in Scotland and internationally. Following a two-year secondment with Audit Scotland, Sarah is retained as their rural adviser, having established their Islands Forum in 2017.

Sarah is Scientific Director of the Scottish Consortium for Rural Research (SCRR). She is on the Advisory Board of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH), a member of the International Network on Social Disadvantage in Rural Peripheries, member of the Scottish Advisory Group of the OECD Rural Innovation Programme, Partner in Scotland’s Social Action Inquiry, member of the Farming for 1.5 Independent Inquiry and a founding member of the National Rural Mental Health Forum.

Sarah’s charity Board appointments have included: Rural Housing Scotland and Scotland’s Regeneration Forum. She was also on the Board of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC).

Professor Niamh NicDaeid FRSE

University of Dundee, UK

Professor Niamh Nic Daeid is a Chartered Chemist and authorised forensic scientist. She is a Professor of Forensic Science and Director of the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and holds fellowships of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Chartered Society of Forensic Science, the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland, the Royal Statistical Society and the UK Association of Fire Investigators. 

She has held leadership positions with the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI) as a past chair of the fire and explosion investigation working group and as vice chair of the scientific advisory board of the International Criminal Court for six years. She is a forensic expert advisor to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and is also vice chair of the Dundee Drugs Commission investigating drug related deaths in Dundee. 

Clement Goldstone QC

Clement was called to the Bar in 1971, having read Law at Cambridge. After a general practice at the Junior Bar, he became a QC in 1993, specialising in heavy criminal cases and licensing law. He became a Circuit Judge in 2002, was authorised to sit at the Central Criminal Court [2006] and the Court of Appeal [Criminal Division] [2009], before being appointed a Senior Circuit Judge and Honorary Recorder of Liverpool in 2011, in which capacity he sat until his retirement in 2019. He received an Honorary Fellowship [Law] from Liverpool John Moores University in 2016, and was Autumn Reader of Middle Temple in 2020. In 2020, he was appointed by the Home Secretary to chair the Jermaine Baker Inquiry [into a fatal police shooting]. He considers it a great honour to have been asked to chair the Editorial Board which has overseen the authorship, and now the publication of the Primer on Ballistics.

Professor Dame Sue Black DBE FRSE FRS

Royal Anthropological Institute and Lancaster University, UK

Baroness Black is the Pro Vice Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University. She is a forensic anthropologist, an anatomist and President of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, a Fellow of the British Academy and a chartered forensic anthropologist. She was awarded an OBE in 2001 for her services to forensic anthropology in Kosovo and a DBE in 2016 for her services to forensic anthropology and education.

Dame Amanda Yip DBE, High Court Judge, England and Wales

Amanda was born and raised in Liverpool before studying law at Cambridge. She was called to the Bar in 1991, and returned to practise in Liverpool, developing a broad common law practice covering crime, family and civil cases before specialising in high value personal injury claims and clinical negligence work.   She became a QC in 2011.  Her practice at the Bar regularly involved detailed consideration of complex medical and scientific evidence.  

Amanda was appointed to the High Court Bench in October 2017.  She sits in the Queen’s Bench Division and tries serious criminal and civil cases. She is currently a Presiding Judge of the Northern Circuit and Director of Civil Training for the Judicial College.  She has enjoyed working on the Forensic Collision Investigation Primer which is nearing publication.