Multifunctional Landscapes report launch livestream

Adrian Smith became President of the Royal Society on 30 November 2020. He is also Institute Director and Chief Executive of The Alan Turing Institute.

He is a mathematician with expertise in Bayesian statistics. This branch of mathematics represents uncertainties in the form of probabilities, which are then modified through the mechanism of Bayes theorem as new information becomes available. Adrian's comprehensive publications on diverse areas of Bayesian statistics have had a major impact on statistical practice in a wide range of disciplines and application areas.

Between 2008-2012, he was Director General, Knowledge and Innovation in BIS (now BEIS) and has previously worked with the UK Higher Education Funding and Research Councils. Adrian is Chair of the Board of the Diamond Light Source and is also a board member of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. In 2017, he carried out a review of the maths curriculum for 16-18 year olds for the Treasury and Department for Education. In the 2011 New Year Honours list, he was awarded the title of Knight Bachelor.

Sarah Mukherjee is the CEO of IEMA.  She was the BBC's Environment Correspondent for many years, presenting on national and international BBC radio and television news, working – and winning awards – across the world.   Since leaving the Corporation, she has had leadership roles in utilities and agriculture.  She was a panel member for the National Parks Review and sat on the National Food Strategy Advisory Panel.  She is also a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the Environment Agency.  Sarah was awarded an MBE for her services to agriculture and farmer well-being in 2021.

Sarah has been a Campaign for Real Ale beer judge and a rugby supporter in the past - two activities she still enjoys - and is a runner and yoga addict.  

Trudy Harrison was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in September 2022. She was previously Minister of State at the Department for Transport and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport (DfT). She was elected Conservative MP for Copeland in 2017.

Trudy worked at Sellafield for 5 years as a technical clerk before setting up and running a childcare business. Following a career break, Trudy was employed by Copeland Borough Council, first as a Locality Officer and then as Community Regeneration Officer. Trudy left Copeland Borough Council in 2013 to work as a Programme Manager for investors specialising in renewable energy and sustainable community projects.

Charles Godfray is a population biologist with broad interests in science and the interplay of science and policy. He has spent his career at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London, and is currently Hope Professor of Entomology and Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food at Oxford. His research involves experimental and theoretical studies in population and community ecology, epidemiology and evolutionary biology. The two main current projects in his laboratory involve experimental studies of the interactions between aphids and their food plants, natural enemies and symbionts, and the control of malaria vectoring mosquitoes using novel genetic interventions. He is particularly interested in food security and chaired the Lead Expert Group of the UK Government Office of Science’s Foresight project on the Future of Food and Farming and is currently chair of Defra’s Science Advisory Council. 

Professor Boyd is the Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government on Food and Environment.  In the past he has been Director of the Scottish Oceans Institute at the University of St Andrews and the Sea Mammal Research Unit, a partner institute of the Natural Environment Research Council since 2001.  He is also currently an adviser to the Principal’s Office at the University of St Andrews focussing upon commercialisation and knowledge exchange.  He is on the Board of Reviewing Editors of Science and is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Zoology.  He was responsible for creating several companies that are owned by the University of St Andrews and these now have international subsidiaries in the USA, Canada and Hong Kong.

He has BSc and DSc degrees for the University of Aberdeen, a PhD from Cambridge University and has received prizes for his research including the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London and the Bruce Medal for Polar Science from the Royal Society of Edinburgh.  He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Society of Biology.

Judy is a painter, poet, environmentalist, and expert advisor on multicultural environmental participation. She is probably best known as the Honorary President of Black Environment Network (BEN). For 27 years she was the UK Director of BEN, with an international reputation as the pioneer and creator of the field of multicultural environmental participation in the built and natural environment. She was awarded an OBE for pioneering multicultural environmental participation in 2000, and a CBE for services to heritage in 2007.