Thought Leaders
Awakn: Welcoming a new era of psychedelic-assisted therapy
Dr Ben Sessa is a psychiatrist, researcher, writer, and Co-founder and Head of Psychedelic Medicine at Awakn Life Sciences. His academic research coupled with his therapeutic practice have yielded vital insights into the safety and efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapy. Now, practicing with the biotechnology company Awakn Life Sciences, he is working to increase the availability of these revolutionary treatments. As […]
Cara and Researchers at Risk: Offering a lifeline to academics in danger
For nearly 90 years, Cara (or the Council for At-Risk Academics) has offered a lifeline to researchers and academics working in, or forced to flee from, dangerous global contexts. It works with those currently escaping persecution, those who have been forced into exile, or those who pursue their vital research in a home country ravaged by war or oppression. It […]
EngineeringUK and The Big Bang Fair: Inspiring the next generation of STEM researchers
EngineeringUK seeks to promote engineering in all its facets. As part of this overarching mission, it runs the annual Big Bang Fair, a highly successful celebration of STEM research, aimed at 11–14 year-old students from across the UK. This year, thousands of young people gathered at the NEC in Birmingham, where they were presented with an array of installations, activities, […]
A life in literature: An interview with Professor Nicholas Royle
Nicholas Royle is Professor of English at the University of Sussex and founding director of the Centre for Creative and Critical Thought. Since publishing his first work of criticism – Telepathy and Literature – in 1991, his creative output has been consistently varied and rewarding, blurring any firm conception of form or genre. Royle remains most widely known, perhaps, for […]
Rethinking psychiatric medication: An interview with Will Hall
Influential mental-health advocate, therapist, and researcher Will Hall talks to us about his latest research on psychiatric drugs, carried out at Maastricht University in the Netherlands with fellow pioneers in the field. Drawing on his own clinical experience as a therapist and personal experience of the mental-health system, Hall’s research indicates that the current pharmaceutical approach to treating mental illnesses […]
Ladders4Action: Working for an ethical, inclusive, and collaborative research landscape
Ladders4Action is a nonprofit organisation which works to radically enhance the equality and inclusivity of the UK’s research spaces. It seeks to protect and nurture marginalised voices who might otherwise feel excluded from these spaces, fostering a community of researchers from a diverse array of backgrounds. The organisation recognises that only by translating theory into meaningful action will we create […]
The Money View: An interview with Professor Perry Mehrling
Since 2018, Perry Mehrling has been Professor of International Political Economy at Boston University. Prior to this, he served for three decades as Professor of Economics at Barnard College, Columbia University. His work is now primarily concerned with articulating and finessing the Money View, a compelling approach to monetary economics which synthesises ideas from both economics and finance. In our […]
The importance of nuanced scientific communication in an age of rising distrust
Dr Karen Jacqueline Cloete is an interdisciplinary scientific researcher whose work spans a multitude of areas. She is affiliated to the UNESCO-University of South Africa Africa Chair in Nanosciences-Nanotechnology, and the Nanosciences African Network-iThemba LABS-National Research Foundation. As well as currently working at the rich intersection between nanotechnology, chemistry and biology, Dr Cloete asks broader questions about the relationship between […]
The Open Notebook and the art of science journalism
The importance of quality science journalism has been widely recognised throughout the long months of the COVID-19 pandemic. What is less frequently discussed is the unique skillset that is required to undertake this vital form of translation: ensuring that the complexity of cutting-edge research is communicated in such a way that it remains exciting, accurate, and digestible. The Open Notebook […]
The Story Collider: Communicating the stories of science
The Story Collider is an organisation with a simple yet vital task: to collect and relay stories about science. This task is fundamentally collaborative, involving an assortment of global voices from across every demographic. There are very few lives, after all, which have not been touched in some inexplicable way by the capabilities of modern science. Research Outreach were privileged […]