Ross Fraser

Mark Vernon is one of the UK’s leading popular philosophers. He has written a number of successful books, including most recently ‘How to Be an Agnostic’. His writing appears regularly in the Guardian and the Evening Standard, and he is a well-known figure on the literary festival circuit as both an interviewer and an guest. He has PhD’s in both theology and philosophy (from Oxford and Durham). He is a founder of the School of Life, based in London. Paul L. Younger is one of the world’s leading hydrologists, with 25 years of experience in the water industry worldwide. He is currently Rankine Professor of Engineering at the University of Glasgow, and also chairs the Global Scientific Committee of the Planet Earth Institute. Professor Younger has lent his expertise to projects around the globe, and frequently advises UN agencies on issues of water sustainability. David Ashford is Managing Director of Bristol Spaceplanes Ltd, an innovative small company developing the Ascender spaceplane. He studied Aeronautical engineering at Imperial College, London, and did postgraduate research at Princeton, before being involved in major projects including Concorde, the Skylark sounding rocket, and missile and electronic warfare projects at Douglas Aircraft and BAE Systems. Jonathan Clements is well known for his biographies of figures from Chinese history, including Chairman Mao, Confucius, Empress Wu, Khubilai Khan and Marco Polo, as well as a highly regarded history of Beijing. His biography of the First Emperor was itself published in Chinese. His most recent book is a new translation of Sun Tzu’s Art of War. Michael Scott is Professor of English and Theatre Studies and Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of Glyndwr University, Wrexham. He has taught Shakespeare for over 35 years and has also tutored A Level students, and for over ten years he worked as a Visiting Lecturer teaching Shakespeare with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has extensive experience also of teaching Shakespeare worldwide, including as Visiting Professor in English at Georgetown University. In Spring 2013 he conducted an extensive lecture tour on Shakespeare in China. Peter Warren is an award-winning newspaper and TV journalist acknowledged as an expert on technology and computer and internet crime. He wrote the first articles highlighting the potential for the internet to be abused by paedophiles in 1989 and as a result was asked to brief the first UK police force to respond to the danger, the Greater Manchester Police Obscene Publications Squad, on the issues the technology has produced. He has also set up the Cyber Security Research Institute, an organisation pulling together the UK’s top academic and business experts in the field of computer security with leading journalists in a bid to raise awareness of cyber crime. Michael Streeter is an author and former Fleet Street executive who worked for The Independent, the Daily Express, the Mirror and the Daily Mail. He was also editor of the Scottish Daily Express and launch editor of the Daily Express website. Michael’s books include the co-authorship with Peter Warren of Cyber Alert: How the world is under attack from a new form of crime. Julian Baggini is a philosopher, author and journalist, who was recently named on the Observer’s list of Britain’s top public intellectuals. His doctorate was from University College London on the philosophy of personal identity, and his books have been published globally and translated into twelve languages. Camilla Ween is an architect, urban planner and Harvard University Loeb Fellow. She worked for Transport for London for 11 years, where she was responsible for advising the Mayor of London on the implications for transport of land use policy and development, and developing planning policy for many of London’s key growth areas.