Sir Vince Cable

Chair of Committee

The Rt Hon Sir Vince Cable has recently retired from parliament after 20 years as MP for Twickenham during which time he served in the Coalition cabinet as Secretary of `State for Business Innovation and Skills (2010-15) and Leader of the Liberal Democrats (20017-19)

Vince read Natural Science and Economics at Cambridge University followed by a PhD at Glasgow University. He has an honorary doctorate at Kingston University.

From 1966-68 he was a Treasury Finance Officer for the Kenya Government (ODI Fellow). After lecturing economics at Glasgow he worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as 1st secretary in the Diplomatic Service. He was then Deputy Director of the Overseas Development Institute including a period as Special Advisor to the Secretary of State, John Smith. From 1983 to 1990 he was Special Advisor on Economic Affairs to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Sir Sonny Ramphal.

In 1990 he joined the Shell scenario planning team and became Shell’s Chief Economist. He spent a period as Head of the Economics Programme at Chatham House.

Vince served as a Labour councillor in Glasgow before joining the SDP-Liberal Alliance and the Liberal Democrats. He was elected to parliament in Twickenham in 1997.

Kathleen Gould

Dr. Kathleen L. Gould, a distinguished Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University, has a notable academic and research background. Dr. Gould received her A.B. degree in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego. She has received numerous awards and holds a Louise B. McGavock endowed faculty chair at Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Gould is also a member of several national professional societies and journal editorial boards, and she serves regularly as reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and the National Academies Ford Foundation.

Dr. Gould's internationally recognized research program focuses on the mechanisms controlling cell division, utilizing various cutting-edge approaches. Additionally, she has played pivotal roles in shaping biomedical training strategies at both institutional and national levels to enhance and broaden training of biomedical pre- and post-doctoral fellows.

Nayanjot Lahiri

Nayanjot Lahiri is a Professor of History at Ashoka UniversityLink opens in a new window. She was previously a professor in the Department of History at the University of Delhi. Educated at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and at the Department of History, University of Delhi, she taught at Hindu College from 1982 to 1993, and thereafter at the Department of History. She served as Dean of Colleges at the University of Delhi from 2007 to 2010 and as Dean of International Relations from 2006 to 2007.

Nayanjot Lahiri has been a Member of the Delhi Urban Art Commission (2007-2010) and currently serves on the Council of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and on the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Society (New Delhi). She was also a member of a committee set up by the Government of India in 2010 to analyse the impact of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 2010 and to draft an alternative bill for Parliament. The bill became law in March 2010.

Sibusiso Moyo

Prof Sibusiso Moyo is Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies at Stellenbosch University (SU).

Moyo holds a BSc in Mathematics (with merit) from the University of Zambia (1996). She obtained her postgraduate qualifications in Mathematics from the University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal) – a BScHons in 1997, an MSc in 1998, and a PhD in 2002. In 2016, she also graduated with a master's degree in Tertiary Education Management (with distinction) from the LH Martin Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Moyo, a married mother of two, is passionate about promoting gender equality in the STEM fields of research (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). She was one of the inaugural executive members of the South African chapter of the Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD).

Claus Vögele

Dr. Claus Vögele is a highly accomplished in the field of psychology with an extensive academic background. He has held various academic positions in both German and British universities and currently serves as the Head of the University’s Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Luxembourg.

Dr. Vögele has also been involved in honorary appointments with universities in Germany, Switzerland, and the UK.

His professional contributions extend beyond academia, as he is actively involved as a reviewer for numerous research funding organizations and holds editorial positions in several international and national journals.

Additionally, he is a respected member of various psychological and health-related societies, demonstrating his significant impact in the field.

Mariette DiChristina

Mariette DiChristina is the dean of the College of Communication at Boston University and an internationally recognised science journalist. She has an extensive background in science writing and publishing, having served as the editor-in-chief and executive vice president of Scientific American.

DiChristina has also held leadership roles in organizations such as the National Association of Science Writers and has been recognized for her contributions with awards and fellowships.

In addition to her role as dean, she is actively involved in various committees and boards related to science communication and research funding.