All ministers and senior officials on GOV.UK

Professor Peter Cooke was appointed as Vice Chairperson of the Independent Living Fund’s board of trustees in March 2006. Peter is Emeritus Professor of Automotive Management at the University of Buckingham Business School, …

Peter Dolton is a Professor of Economics at Sussex University and Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Economics. His research interests are in the labour economics, applied econometrics and the economics of educat…

Professor Peter Freer-Smith was appointed Chief Scientist at the Forestry Commission in 2009 Peter studied for his first degree at Stirling University gaining a first class degree in Biological Sciences. His PhD was on the i…

Professor Peter Halligan was Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales (CSAW) from March 2018 until February 2022. Professor Halligan is a distinguished psychologist and neuroscientist. Since moving to Wales from his native Ireland…

Professor Peter Liss is a Professorial Fellow in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia. His research interests are in ocean-atmosphere interaction particularly involving trace gases. He served…

Peter White OBE MD FRCP FRCPsych is Emeritus Professor of Psychological Medicine at Queen Mary University of London. He was a consultant liaison psychiatrist at St Bartholomew’s hospital and co-led the chronic fatigue syndro…

Professor Phil Blythe is Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) at Newcastle University. Prior to joining the Department for Transport he was Director of the Transport Operations Research Group for 13 years. Phil’s…

Philip Marsden (appointed in April 2014) is a competition lawyer with a particular interest in abuse of dominance, innovation incentives, consumer welfare, and international competition issues. He is Professor of Law and Eco…

Professor Rachel Mills is the Senior Vice President (Academic) at King’s College London, leading on academic strategy and delivery in the Vice Chancellor’s senior team. She is responsible for shaping the academic vision and …

Richard Dickens became a Low Pay Commissioner on 1 May 2014. He is Professor of Economics and Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Sussex. He is a leading academic on labour markets and the minimum wage a…

Richard Disney is a Visiting Professor of Economics at University College, London and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. He was previously a member of the NHS Pay Review Body (2003-09). His fields of inte…

Professor Richard Prager is the Chief Scientific Adviser at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Before joining MHCLG, Richard was Head of the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University and Acade…

Ricky Burdett is Professor of Urban Studies, and director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age Programme a Visiting Professor in Urban Planning and Design at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University a member of council o…

Professor Robin Mason is Chair of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom. Robin is also Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International) and Professor of Economics at the University of Birmingham; and a decision-ma…

Professor Robin May took up his post as Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency in July 2020. See Robin’s full biography.

Professor Roderick Smith was DfT’s Chief Scientific Adviser from January 2012 to May 2014. The Chief Scientific Adviser makes sure that the department’s policies and operations, and its contributions to wider government issu…

Roger Brownsword has been a member of the UK NSC since 2010. He is an expert in law, regulation and technology, biolaw and bioethics, and commercial and contract law. He holds professorial positions in law at King’s College …

Roger Cashmore was appointed Chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority on 30 July 2010 and reappointed on 30 July 2013. Career highlights: he is a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 2010 led the Royal Society working group …

Professor Rosie Hails MBE DSc hc FRSB was appointed chair of the Defra Biodiversity Expert Committee in April 2023 for 3 years. Rosie is an ecologist and Nature and Science Director at the National Trust, holding honorary ch…

Rowland Kao was appointed Chair of Defra’s Science Advisory Council in January 2025 for 3 years. Rowland is Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Data Science, University of Edinburgh. Rowland is a mathematical biologist …

Russell Viner is Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department for Education. He is a paediatrician and professor at the University College London (UCL) Great Ormond St. Institute of Child Health and works clinically at Univer…

Sallie has over 30 years’ experience of working in the areas of environment, natural resources and agriculture, both in the UK and internationally. Sallie’s focus is on ensuring science, evidence and analysis are at the hear…

Sarah Brown became a Low Pay Commissioner on 26th March 2015. Her term ends on 10 November 2021. She is a Professor of Economics at the University of Sheffield and a director of the Institute for Economic Analysis of Decisio…

Professor Sarah Hawkes is a Commonwealth Scholarship Commissioner. Sarah is Professor of Global Public Health at University College London, Director of the Centre for Gender and Global Health at UCL and co-Director of Global…

Professor Sarah Sharples is Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department for Transport. She is a Professor of Human Factors in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Nottingham and from 2018 to 2021 was Pro-Vice-Chan…

Sergi Pardos-Prado is Professor of Comparative Politics and Research Director of the Politics and International Relations department at the University of Glasgow. He was previously Associate Professor in Politics at Merton C…

Professor Sharon Peacock FMedSci CBE is the Executive Director and Chair of the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium . The COG-UK consortium has been created to deliver large-scale and rapid whole-genome virus sequencing…

Professor Sheila Rowan was appointed Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland in June 2016. This is a part-time position within the Scottish government. Sheila also remains Director of the Institute for Gravitational Research, …

Sian Taylor-Phillips is Professor of Population Health at the University of Warwick, specialising in evaluation of medical tests and screening programmes. She leads Warwick Screening, a team of researchers which synthesises …

Simon works as Chief Engagement and Innovation Officer and Professor at the University of Warwick Medical School, and as Group Director for Research and Development for the ‘Foundation Group’ made up of four NHS trusts which…

Simon Redfern is Professor of Mineral Physics at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on the behaviour of minerals and aqueous fluids at high temperatures and pressures. He has previously led large research proj…

Alex has made contributions to medical science in various fields, is accredited in pathology and internal medicine and trained initially in medicinal chemistry. His commercial experience includes cancer drug development and …

Professor Sir Anthony Newman Taylor is currently the Chairman of the Independent Medical Expert Group (IMEG) of the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) . He is Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Nati…

Charles Godfray is Professor of Population Biology and Director of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford where he also leads the School’s Future of Food Programme. He has broad research interests including eco…

Sir David Metcalf was Director of Labour Market Enforcement from January 2017 to June 2019. Before this he was Chair of the Migration Advisory Committee from 2007 to 2016. He was a member of the Senior Salaries Review Body f…

Professor Sir Ian Boyd was Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from September 2012 to August 2019. He is currently Professor in Biology at the University of St Andrews. Career hi…

Ian Chapman was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the UK Atomic Energy Authority on 1 October 2016. His career highlights: he was appointed Head of Tokamak Science at Culham in 2014. he has held a number of international …

Professor Sir Ian Diamond is the UK’s National Statistician. He was the chair of the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) from August 2018 to August 2019. Sir Ian, who was knighted in 2013 for his services to social sci…

Professor Sir John Edmunds was appointed Chief Scientific Adviser and Director for Research and Evidence at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in July 2025. He is a British epidemiologist, seconded from …

Professor Keith Burnett was appointed to the UK Atomic Energy Authority Board on 1 November 2010. Career highlights: he became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield in 2007 he was Head of the Division of Mathematica…

Sir Mark Walport is the Chief Executive of the newly formed UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which is responsible for the public funding of research and innovation. He was Government Chief Scientific Adviser ( GCSA ) and H…

Sir Michael is chairman of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (since December 2014). He is a clinical phamacologist and specialist in internal medicine. He was professor of clinical pharmacology in Newca…

Professor Sir Mike Richards was a hospital physician for more than 20 years. After a variety of training posts, he was a consultant medical oncologist between 1986 and 1995, and Professor of Palliative Medicine at Guy’s and …

Sir Norman was appointed as the Chair of the Independent Reconfiguration Panel in 2019 by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. He originally practised as a colorectal surgeon and was professor of surgery at Bar…

Sir Paul Curran is President and Professor of Physical Geography at City University of London. His research is in the field of environmental Earth observation from satellite and airborne sensors. He studied at the Universiti…

Robin Grimes is the Steele Chair of Energy Materials at Imperial College. From 2017 to 2021 he was Chief Scientific Adviser (nuclear) to the Ministry of Defence and between 2013 and 2018 Chief Scientific Adviser to the Forei…

Stephen Bach is Executive Dean and Professor of Employment Relations at King’s Business School. His research interests include: public service employment relations in comparative perspective; international migration of healt…

Professor Stephen Belcher became Met Office Chief Scientist in December 2016. Stephen obtained his PhD in fluid dynamics from the University of Cambridge in 1990 and has subsequently published over 100 peer-reviewed papers o…

Stephen Duffy is a statistician and epidemiologist, educated at Edinburgh University and Imperial College, London. His research is mainly in cancer epidemiology, prevention and screening, including work on the pioneering Swe…

Stephen Hardy is a Professor of Law and the Dean of the Faculty of Business, Law & Politics at the University of Hull. Stephen has published widely in employment and social security law. Formerly, he was a practising Bar…