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School Industry Advisory Board

School Industry Advisory Board

The School Industry Advisory Board consists of invited members from a range of private and public sector backgrounds, some of whom are Royal Holloway alumni, and who are appointed initially for a period of three years (renewable), on invitation from the Chair and Executive Dean of the School.

The Board serves three primary functions:-

  1. To provide independent, external strategic advice and perspectives to Royal Holloway’s School of Life Sciences and the Environment which will inform, shape and influence the content and delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, along with the delivery of studentships and internships.
  2. To provide access to key experts (i.e., the Board members) who are outside the day-to-day functioning of the School, and who can challenge and question the way things are done in the School from an external perspective.
  3. To be part of a School network for student placement, research collaborations and employability pathways.

Any enquiries about the Industry Advisory Board should be directed to Dr Walter Lucchesi.

Please note that while affiliations are listed for most Board members, members external to Royal Holloway act as individuals in terms of Board matters, and not as representatives of any organisations they work for, or are associated with.

The Board's terms of reference can be found here.

Board Members

Walter is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway. He has extensive experience as bench scientist working in virology and neurosciences during his PhD at Imperial College London, Department of Infectious Diseases and his post doc at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. As a teaching focused lecturer, he specialised in the development of innovative teaching formats to boost inclusivity and active learning, receiving prizes and commendations. Walter has developed several projects aimed at boosting students’ employability, one of which is the Industry Advisory Board which he chairs. He is a fan of outdoors sports and motorcycling.

 

 

Professor Richard Amlôt is Head of Behavioural Science at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), and leads UKHSA’s Behavioural Science and Insights Unit (BSIU). The BSIU conducts applied research and evaluation for UKHSA and with its partners, applying evidence and insights from the behavioural and social sciences to a range of health protection and security topics, with a particular focus on public health emergency preparedness and response. He is also the UKHSA Co-Director of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation at University of Bristol, and visiting Professor of Practice in the Psychology of Health Protection at King’s College London.

Nazma has extensive experience of the services industries working in utilities, financial services and telecommunications where she has held various senior roles in marketing. She brings 20 years leadership experience, a quest for knowledge and a passion for supporting, coaching and developing people to achieve their potential. A bold and energetic individual who believes in collaboration and networking to share knowledge, skills and best practice.

Emily has been the London Programmes & Communications Coordinator for AccessHE since 2020. She works with higher education institutions across London on events and resources on several key widening participation areas. These areas include BAME students, disabled students, creative subjects, mature and part time students, care experienced and estranged students, student ambassador programmes and research, monitoring and evaluation. Before joining AccessHE, Emily worked for Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and Balliol College, Oxford in outreach and widening participation.

Neil has been working in the upstream energy industry for over 27 years, having held a variety of positions, from research geochemist / basin modeller to asset exploration management roles in Shell, BG Group and Hess. He has worked in a number of different countries, including The Netherlands, Oman, Australia, China, Russia and Mexico, where he has undertaken technical and business development roles. Neil has also led Shell’s innovation portfolio (“GameChanger”), with the aim of developing new technology and business ideas for both proprietary application and commercialisation. Neil was President of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain (2017-2019) and subsequently founded the “Exploring the Energy Transition” special interest group. Neil recently joined the governing council and became a trustee of the Geological Society of London. He is an active trustee and company secretary for The Etches Collection (a museum of Jurassic marine life on the south coast of Dorset). Neil was awarded by PhD by Royal Holloway University of London in 1993.

Dr Richard Gianfrancesco leads higher education at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. As part of this role, he coordinates a number of Masters-level courses, run in partnership with universities and is the co-director of the well-established MSc: Plant and Fungal Taxonomy, Diversity and Conservation. He also oversees over 75 co-supervised PhD students, an annual cohort of undergraduate and graduate interns and a range of Continued Professional Development courses.

Prior to working at Kew, Richard gained his doctorate at the University of Sheffield and has worked in commercial seed research, publishing, ecological consultancy and manufacturing, all with a focus on plant science and horticulture.

Professor Alistair Griffiths is responsible for managing the RHS’s team of scientists and sits on the RHS Executive Board. He leads a highly skilled team of scientists focused on undertaking scientific research to provide high-quality, evidence-based solutions to address horticultural challenges. He has a First and National Diploma in Horticulture from Myerscough College and obtained his BSc (Hons) and PhD from the University of Reading and is a Visiting Professor of Royal Holloway, University of London. Prior to the RHS he was a key player in using horticulture science to create the award-winning Eden Project, spending a decade there as Head Scientist. Alistair is a UK representative on the Council of the International Society for Horticultural Science, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture and of the Royal Society of Biology. He sits on the Government's Ornamental Horticulture Roundtable and chairs the UK's OHRG Horticultural Scientific Research and Development Group.

 

Alistair is interested in how gardens, gardening and growing garden plants sustainably (indoors or out) can help towards improving the wellbeing of people and the planet, he is co-author of Your Wellbeing Garden: How to Make Your Garden Good for You - Science, Design, and Practice and lead author of the new RHS Sustainability Strategy, Net Positive for Nature and People. His ambition is to build a more resilient gardening community who enjoy their gardens and who take positive actions by using their gardening handprints to maximise the health of our nation and planet.

Jessica works within the Education Department at the Institute of Physics (IOP) and in the School of Education, Communication & Society at King’s College London (KCL). Jessica has a PhD in Palaeoclimatology from Royal Holloway, University of London before focusing on teaching. After her PGCE Jessica went on to become a science teacher and teacher trainer before moving into education research at the IOP and KCL. She has worked on numerous projects to widen participation in STEM through initiatives targeted at school students, parents and school staff.