Stamford Lecture Series

Will Gompertz is an acclaimed English journalist, author, and art critic. He is the Director of Sir John Soane’s Museum in London. Known for his engaging and accessible approach to art, Gompertz has written several influential books, including What Are You Looking At? and Think Like an Artist. His work often explores the intersection of creativity and everyday life, making art more approachable and understandable for a broad audience.

As a respected expert in her field, Kerry has supported numerous high profile police investigations, worked in maximum security prisons and has appeared on various TV programmes including Judge Rinder’s Crime Stories and Faking It: Tears of Crime. Alongside her passion for forensic psychology, Kerry is a huge advocate for better conversations about mental wellbeing. She is a patron of The National Centre for Domestic Violence and Talking2Minds.

Dame Claire is recognized as one of the most influential female nurses of all time. Her work in Ethiopia in 1984 inspired Band Aid and subsequently Live Aid, the biggest relief program ever mounted. She won the Florence Nightingale medal in 1991, in 2005 she was made Women of the Year and 2007 received the Human Rights in Nursing Award from the International Centre for Human Rights and Nursing Ethics.

Henry is the co-founder and former CEO of Leon restaurants. He also co-founded the Sustainable Restaurant Association and the charity Chefs in Schools, which brings restaurant chefs into school kitchens. In 2013, he co-authored The School Food Plan, a blueprint for government setting out actions to transform what children eat in schools and how they learn about food. He also led an independent review for Government, the National Food Strategy.

Michael Edwards, better known as Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards, was the first competitor to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Olympic Ski jumping, despite having very little skill for his sport. Eddie’s heroic failures won the hearts and minds of the British public at the time making him more popular than most gold medal winners.

Michael Pawlyn was one of the lead architects behind the Eden Project in Cornwall. Treating nature as a blueprint, he believes there are huge gains to be made by learning from how the natural world works.

A plasma physicist, speaker, writer and adventurer, Dr Melanie Windridge has a PhD in fusion energy from Imperial College London, is Communications Consultant for fusion company Tokamak Energy, Founder of Fusion Energy Insights, is a STEM Ambassador and the author of Aurora: In Search of Northern Lights.

Rosemary (Rose) Luckin is Professor of Learner Centred Design at UCL Knowledge Lab and renowned for her research into the design and evaluation of educational technology. She was named one of the 20 most influential people in education in the Seldon List, 2017.

Kevin Fong is a consultant anaesthetist at University College London. He holds degrees in astrophysics, medicine and aerospace engineering, he has worked and trained with NASA, and he’s an award-winning BBC presenter and author.