Committee and Trustees
The activities of CiS are overseen by the CiS committee, which is drawn from the membership and meets three or more times during the year. CiS also has a number of Trustees – listings are below the Committee.
Due to increased spam emails we have made changes to our listed email addresses below. Where we have (at) please use the normal @ symbol. Apologies.
Executive Committee Chair: Prof Paul Ewart
Paul graduated in Physics from Queen’s University Belfast and has spent most of his career at Oxford University where he served as Head of the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics. He has been Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellow and a visiting professor at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, Boulder, USA, the École Normale Supérièure, Paris and the University of Otago, New Zealand. His research has ranged from fundamental physics of quantum and non-linear optics to laser applications in engineering and chemistry relevant to reduction of climate-changing effects in the environment. He is an active member of a local church near Oxford and convener of the Oxford Forum for Science and Religion.
The email address for the Committee Chair is chair.cis(at)outlook.com
General Secretary: Gavin Merrifield
Gavin graduated with a PhD in Medical Physics from the University of Edinburgh and an undergraduate degree in Physics with Astrophysics from the University of Exeter. Before moving into Research Support roles, he spent 10 years in preclinical biomedical MRI researching everything from Quality Assurance in functional brain imaging, to the metamorphosis of caterpillars and the hearts of zebrafish and spiders. He has long been involved in science-based public engagement, especially for Christians and church groups. Gavin is also on the Committees of the Manchester CiS local group and the national Science and Religion Forum. He is a member of Holy Trinity Stalybridge.
The email address for the General Secretary – secretary(at)cis.org.uk
Executive Officer: Mrs Mary Browett
Mary has worked in a diverse number of industries from IT, Construction, Retail, NHS etc but has always had an interest in the Sciences. From looking through microscopes to star gazing, biology, geology, chemistry, and the list goes on. Mary lives in Scotland.
Mary can be contacted at maryb.cis(at)outlook.com
Dvelopment Officer:
For the time being, CiS will no longer have a Development Offier – please contact our Executive officer. Mary can be contacted at maryb.cis(at)outlook.com
Journal Editor: Prof Keith Fox
Keith Fox is Professor of Biochemistry at Southampton University, where he leads research on the sequence specific recognition of DNA by small molecules, oligonucleotides and proteins, and is Senior Executive Editor of the journal Nucleic Acids Research. He is also Associate Director of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge. He is a former chairman and trustee of Christians in Science and is a lay reader at Highfield Church, Southampton.
Journal Reviews Editor: Dr Todd Kantchev
Todd has degrees in Medical Physics and Engineering from Imperial College London and an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Technical University in Sofia. He was one of the leaders in the design and implementation of the first commercial digital Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) in the UK and the international standardisation for digital patient imaging records in healthcare. Before that, Todd was a Senior Research Scientist in high performance parallel computing and a hardware design engineer of mainframe computers. He is an active member of a local church and a convener of a local CiS discussion group in Bath/Wells near Bristol.
Interim Membership Secretary: Dr Roger Tucker
Roger is a technology researcher turned entrepreneur who describes his research career as the “science of the non-existent”. He started out as an academic with a PhD in Speech over Packet-Switched Networks (now VoIP) – long before the days of the internet, or even networks with enough bandwidth to carry voice. After lecturing for a few years he moved back into full-time research in a contract R&D start-up, Ensigma, working on a wide range of speech processing technologies based on totally unrealistic but very effective models of human speech production. He then joined Hewlett Packard Research Labs working on technologies relevant for a future where computing processing and memory would be much faster & bigger – which of course they now are. He latterly worked on technologies for development, being Director of the Local Language Speech Technology Initiative, before founding Sonocent Ltd in 2007 to tackle the problem of note-taking in Higher Education, particularly for students with dyslexia. He recently retired as CEO but remains as Chairman of Sonocent’s board.
The email address for the Membership Secretary – membership(at)cis.org.uk
Treasurer: Dr Stephen Walley
Stephen Walley graduated PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1983. He then worked as a Research Associate at the Cavendish Laboratory. Although retiring in 2014, he is still professionally active in the SMF Fracture and Shock Physics at the Cavendish. Over the years, he has been involved in a number of projects including ballistic impact on glass/polymer laminates, ignition mechanisms of propellants, and high strain rate mechanical properties of polymers, metals and energetic materials. He is secretary of the DYMAT Association (and on its Governing Board).
The email address for the Treasurer is – treasurer(at)cis.org.uk
International Secretary: Dr Rhoda Hawkins
Dr Rhoda Hawkins is currently the Academic Director of the Ghana centre of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS Ghana). Whilst living in Ghana, she is still affiliated to the University of Sheffield where she was a senior lecturer in Physics until the end of 2022. Before becoming a lecturer she worked as a postdoc in Amsterdam, Paris and Bristol. She did her PhD at the University of Leeds with Prof Tom McLeish and her undergraduate studies at the University of Oxford. Her field of research is theoretical biological physics. She has been a member of Christians in Science since her student days and served on the committee as a PhD student rep. Rhoda was the first Oliver Barclay lecturer.
Education Secretary: Stephen Thompson
Stephen’s journey with CiS began when he was at Keele University, graduating in a bespoke BSc including Biochemistry and the Philosophy of Science. He went on to gain a PGCE in teaching biological sciences for secondary phase students and has made a career in education, working in both church and non-church schools. Having developed a working knowledge of the spectrum of views that Christian believers hold regarding Genesis and origins, he embarked on a postgraduate research project at Durham into various aspects of the theology of Creation, which continues to be his major research interest. This underpins his work with CiS to support science teachers. He also contributes to the ‘Learning About Science And Religion/ Epistemic Insight’ team at Canterbury Christ Church, is a trustee formulating policy with a developing Christian Multi Academy Trust, and sometimes mentors Christians in business. On his days off he campaigns for election with the Green Party.
Dr Paul Roberts:
Paul is a Centre Fellow in the Centre for Systems Modelling and Quantitative Biomedicine at the University of Birmingham, UK. A Mathematical Biologist, he works across a range of biomedical applications, especially Ophthalmology. He has an MMath in Mathematics and a DPhil in Systems Biology, both from the University of Oxford. Paul has long-standing interests spanning systematic and philosophical theology and apologetics. He was the winner of the 2014 CiS Student Essay Competition, on which he spoke at the 2015 CiS Student Conference, and wrote the CiS Being a Christian in Mathematics leaflet.
Postgrad Rep: needed
Trustees:
Acting Trustees Chair: Prof Bill Clegg
Bill graduated in Chemistry from Cambridge, where he also obtained his PhD in 1973. He has spent most of his career at Newcastle University except for 6 years in Göttingen (Germany). His area of research is X-ray crystallography including the development of facilities using synchrotron radiation. Retired in 2009, he continues with part-time research and also serves as a University Chaplain. For leisure he’s a keen cyclist, choral tenor, and involved in amateur dramatics
Prof Berry Billingsley
Steph Bevan
Steph Bevan graduated in Physics and Music at Cardiff University before training to be a Physics Teacher at the Institute of Education, London. Steph taught Physics for several years before joining the Education Team at the Institute of Physics (IOP) alongside working as the Development Officer for Christians in Science. Steph is now the Public Engagement Manager for the IOP in Wales and the Schools Development Officer for the God and the Big Bang Project finding new ways to engage people in the science and faith dialogue. She is also a Trustee of The Kepplewray Project, a Christian Outdoors Centre in the Lake District.
Dr Neville Cobbe
Neville latterly studied divinity at Queen’s University Belfast, pursuant to a prior research career in genetics and molecular cell biology, and currently works with the Church of Ireland and Methodist Chaplaincy Belfast. He worked for several years at the Universities of Edinburgh and Liverpool, maintaining a sustained record of public engagement and youth-work throughout both his academic career and subsequent lay ministry with various churches, typically speaking to diverse audiences on either the use of fruit flies in cancer research, bioethical topics or the relations between science and faith (with a longstanding interest especially in evolution), as well as preaching and leading services in various denominations.
Prof Paul Ewart
Paul is a Trustee and Executive Committee Chair (see details above)
Rev Angela Lynas
Angela graduated from The University of Sheffield in Genetics in 1979 and worked in research and development in the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years, initially as a Cytogeneticist at Beecham Pharmaceuticals then at Glaxo, GlaxoWellcome and GlaxoSmithKline, gaining her Masters on the way. Angela branched out into various roles including scientific training, quality and international risk management before early retirement in 2011. A long-term member of CiS, she started training for ordination in 2011 and now serves as an Anglican Self Supporting Minister in Hertfordshire, Diocese of St Albans.
Jos Moule
Jos studied Biological Sciences at Bristol University before working for six years as a medical virologist with the Public Health Laboratory Service where among other areas of interest he specialised in the diagnosis of post viral fatigue syndrome. He subsequently retrained as a solicitor and is a partner in the firm of Veale Wasbrough Vizards where he specialises in advising companies, charities and social enterprises. He is the registrar of the dioceses of Gloucester and Truro and was co-author of the first edition of Charity Governance published by Jordans.
Prof Euan Nisbet
Euan Nisbet led the UK Natural Environment Research Council’s MOYA consortium, studying the Global Methane Budget (2016-2021). He is Foundation Professor of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, and is a trustee of Christians in Science.