Professor Susan Owens
Biography
Susan Owens was appointed chair of Defra’s Social Science Expert Group in October 2021 for 3 years.
Defra’s Social Science Expert Group is a sub-group of Defra’s Science Advisory Council.
Susan is Professor of Environment and Policy (Emerita) at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of the British Academy and the Academy of Social Sciences.
Susan has researched and published widely in the field of environmental governance, focusing on policy processes in modern democracies, and in particular on the role of knowledge, evidence, ideas and expertise in policy formation and change.
Susan also has extensive experience of policy engagement and advice. She has previously been a member of the RCEP (1998 to 2008) and of the Royal Society’s Science Policy Advisory Group (2008 to 2013). As well as the Social Science Expert Group, she served on Defra’s Hazardous Substances Advisory Committee, and she chairs the Science Advisory Council of the Stockholm Environment Institute.