Core Team

After an early career in General Management with BP, Colin has spent the last 15 years developing new ventures in a number of markets within the science and technology field. This includes a spell as Managing Director for a supply chain consultancy in the transport engineering sector and as founder and Commercial Director of a geo-information start-up.

He has an interest in big data and environmental challenges following time spent as a Board Director with NERC and several years as Innovation Director for Buro Happold, a global engineering consultancy in the built environment sector. He is a strong advocate of innovation and is passionate about helping companies grow through leveraging advanced research and technology.

Jon has worked in the area of environmental informatics and analytics for the past 12 years as Technical Director of the Reading e-Science Centre.

Since completing an MA in Geological Sciences from Cambridge and a PhD in Volcanology from Bristol Jon has participated in, and led, numerous national and international projects concerning environmental data exchange and visualisation, collaborating with many academic, industry and government partners. He has developed open-source data visualisation software that is used all over the world in web-based, data-driven applications.

Since November 2013 he has been the coordinator of the MELODIES project (http://melodiesproject.eu), in which eight new diverse environmental applications are being developed, based upon Open Data.

Before joining the University of Reading, Jon worked in industry as a software engineer, carrying out consultancy projects in numerous industries, including nuclear energy, micro-engineering, pharmaceuticals and agri-chemicals.

Hannah has more than 15 years’ experience working within research organisations on environmental science projects with industry and developing strategic research activities and partnerships.

She joined the IEA from the University of Reading where she held a number of senior administrative roles including Head of Research Development. During this time Hannah delivered more than £40m of funding.

Most recently she has worked with the space sector and spent two years on secondment at the International Space Innovation Centre. It was during this time she developed the concept for the IEA and went on to successfully lead the bid on behalf of the partnership.

Hannah has a PhD in Biogeochemistry and has organised and spoken at major international conferences on environmental science.

With a degree in Civil Engineering from UCL and an MSc in Operational Research, Alan is an experienced IT and business consultant. He has a background in developing innovative business capabilities supported by advanced decision support and direct experience of travel, telecommunications, IT and environmental sectors.

His early career involved R&D and project management roles on complex logistical and marketing decision support systems for British Airways.

He has also delivered consultancy in financial modelling, customer relationship management (CRM) and revenue management as an external consultant for AT&T and Capgemini.

Alan recently successfully studied at Cranfield University for an MSc in Environmental Informatics.  He now enjoys putting old and new skills to work at the IEA, acting as a catalyst between scientific experts and new technological opportunities to address environmental challenges faced by industry.

Ben has a background in data-driven decision support in applications from tyre design through to insurance, construction and retail. He joined the IEA from the Walker Institute for Climate System Research where as a Deloitte-sponsored academic he researched extreme weather with particular reference to drought.

In 2007, Ben co-founded EuroTempest Ltd which continues to supply weather analytics to the (re)insurance industry.

He holds a first in Physics from the University of Liverpool and a PhD in Climate Physics from University College London.

Ben’s mission is to improve our quality of life through the application of science. He believes that environmental science can provide the tools required to tackle the problems of sustainability and global inequality which threaten to undermine our collective well-being.

Barbara graduated from LSBU with a Maths and Computing degree in the mid 1980s. The majority of her experience to date has been with the complete software development life-cycle producing Windows-based database systems that look good, give the results needed at all levels, and are easy to use. Example industries include: telecoms; airports/airlines; a building society; construction; property maintenance; freight importers/exporters; publishers; software houses (internally and their clients); manufacturers; sole traders.

Going off at a tangent, she attained an MSc in Meteorology in 2012 and has since worked at the University of Reading in the UK on environmental projects to make research data and models accessible and understandable by designing software with intuitive user interfaces and meaningful visualisations: projects like the pilot Environmental Virtual Observatory, adding functionality to the Cool Farm Tool, and the Virtual Catchment Laboratory for the River Loddon.

Debbie has a research background with particular expertise in Earth Observation, data assimilation and climate services, and a strong interest in visualisation best practice. She principally works on large collaborative R&D projects with partners across the EU spanning academia, industry and the public sector.

Debbie’s first degree was in Engineering Science at Jesus College, Oxford, and she returned to academia after a period spent working as a consulting civil engineer.

Having obtained a Masters in Soils and Environmental Pollution (University of Reading), she completed a PhD (also University of Reading) on the use of satellite observations and climate models to understand global snow cover. This was followed by post-doctoral and applications development experience within the National Centre for Earth Observation.

With a degree in Physics, Vicky has a background in training and environmental science. She came to the IEA after spending ten years overseas, first as an English teacher in Brazil, then as an air quality scientist in New Zealand and finally as a meteorologist in Tasmania, from where she was seconded to spend a summer season in the Antarctic.

Prior to that Vicky was as an air quality modeller for a power generating company, working in environmental compliance for oil, gas and coal-fired power stations.

Vicky also spent several years as a trainer at the Met Office, leading and delivering the specialist training necessary for operational weather forecasters.  She is committed to the importance of lifelong learning and the value of good training.

Neil has over 10 years’ experience in scientific software development. He is skilled in computer programming, from low level software languages such as C right through to higher level languages such as Python. Neil is passionate about writing programs that are both practical and efficient and has contributed to a number of Open Source projects. He is also experienced in administrating computational infrastructure on local and cloud-based hardware and in provisioning systems using configuration managements tools such as Puppet. Neil has developed a number of web apps to record and display geo location data and is proficient in ensuring adequate testing and conformance to web standards.

Neil obtained a MPhys from the University of Warwick before completing a PhD at the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute at the Open University in Milton Keynes. He then spent 5 years working at the University of St Andrews as one of the lead developers on two Astronomy projects searching for Exoplanets. Following on from this he went to Qatar as a software developer, employed by the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute. Before joining the team at the IEA he was at the University of Bristol working on software to enable non-disclosive analysis of sensitive research data.

Guy has broad ranging experience in scientific software development. Following an MPhys in Physics and a PhD in Computational Polymer Physics from the University of Reading, Guy worked in industry honing his software skills as a software engineer in the navigational group of Thales Research & Technology. From there Guy moved to the Reading e-Science Centre to develop software for visualising environmental data over the web where he has worked on a number of projects, including acting as principal developer of ncWMS and the associated EDAL libraries.

He has also taught programming to MSc students.  Most recently he has worked on a major EU FP7 project (http://www.melodiesproject.eu) developing both server-  and client-side software for a range of environmental data exploration and visualisation projects across a number of industry sectors. Guy joined the IEA in November 2016.

Sam holds a Master of Physics degree with first-class honours and a Doctoral Degree in Astrophysics from the University of Oxford. Prior to joining the IEA he completed a technical postdoctoral position designing and building the hardware and software infrastructure for an international network of telescopes.

Sam has around ten years’ experience applying scientific programming techniques towards quantitative data-driven applications. He has a broad toolbox of problem-solving skills featuring data analysis and visualisation in programming languages such as Python, and software design targeting a range of platforms.

Andy is an expert in weather analytics. He has a background of applying science and technology to help organisations solve problems and inform policy, having worked in the private sector and for the UK Government providing software development, analytics and hazard assessment modelling principally for defence and security.

He joined the IEA from the University of Reading, where he was researching urban climate and developing data-driven services to help stakeholders understand how development and the changing climate interact to affect the urban environment. Andy gained a first in Physics and a PhD in Atmospheric Science at the University of Manchester.

Sam has a broad range of skills covering data analytics, high-performance scientific computational modelling and systems administration and is experienced in the design and development of analytical software. Sam designed and analysed computational models, including disordered quantum systems, during his Masters in Physics.

His PhD in Computational Physics, also at the University of Warwick, involved machine-learning predictions of behaviour of atom-scale materials, leveraging the national ARCHER supercomputer to handle generation and analysis of large data sets. Sam is also experienced in web development, infrastructure and in communicating technical concepts at a wide range of levels.

Sam is an experienced geospatial and environmental data specialist with 15 years of industrial experience spanning the water, environmental, energy and maritime sectors. He has developed broad scientific programming and geospatial data handling and analysis capabilities during through senior positions with international consultancies, Intertek and Lloyd’s Register, where he played a key role in over 100 international consultancy projects.

In 2017, Sam won scholarships from the European and UK space agencies to attend the International Space University’s prestigious summer “Space Studies” programme. He has a BSc in Oceanography from Southampton University and a MSc (Distinction) in Environmental and Water Engineering from the University of Surrey.

Maria has over 20 years’ experience in climate science research and management. She specialises in knowledge innovation, high level stakeholder engagement and capacity building.  Within the IEA. she lead the Copernicus Climate Change Services SECTEUR project, working with private and public sector organisations across Europe to understand their requirements for climate data to deliver better-tailored information for different market sectors including insurance, agriculture, tourism and infrastructure.

Maria started her career as a climate scientist at the Met Office. She has also spent time as a Senior Climate Advisor for the UK Government and on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working on the production of international scientific assessments. For the latter role she is a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the IPCC in 2007. Maria has a degree in Physics, an MSc in Meteorology and a PhD in Climate Modelling.

Sally had an extensive background in national and local newspapers as a journalist at every level from cub reporter to editor in chief, before moving into media communications. She has strong professional links across all media platforms, the regional corporate landscape and the community sector.

Sally is passionate about delivering news from the world of science and data technology in an accessible format, enabling a wider audience to appreciate the many ways that advances in environmental data analytics is impacting our everyday lives as well as UK industry and the economy.

Alison has extensive experience in project management, events management, HR and operational management across a wide range of industries including property, television & media and now environmental data analytics with the IEA.

Coming to the IEA from an international exhibitions company in London, where she was Head of Client Services, Alison brings with her experience of working in both B2B and B2C environments. Supporting the CEO and heavily involved in the setting up of the IEA, Alison was the first person in post and oversees the operational management of the IEA.

Jo is an experienced project, finance and administration professional with experience of B2B and B2C interaction across a wide range of industries including, property, telecoms and transport.

Prior to the IEA she was the UK and European Estates Manager for Vodafone. Her role at the IEA is to provide operational assistance to the team and projects.

Rachel’s role at the IEA includes designing marketing materials and visual content for the company and its projects, including work on the Data Tree data management online course. She has a background as an in-house graphic designer.

Rachel also has extensive freelance experience running her own business on a variety of branding and print projects for a wide range of clients from music festivals to production and events companies. She is currently studying part-time for a degree in Graphic Design from Anglia Ruskin University.