Embark

Working with the University’s Brain Embodiment Lab, Dr Zoulias designed interactive demonstrations illustrating the “what?”, “how?”, and “why?” of investigating the brain. The demonstrations, which included a brain-computer interface enabling the audience to control a virtual body by their thoughts alone, were hosted in settings ranging from open days, at prestigious venues including the Science Museum in London, to school presentations. Each demonstration had a tangible impact on its audience, with participants gaining new knowledge of the inner workings of the brain, asking questions, enquiring about research and how they could forge future careers in science. The project has promoted interchange of ideas among researchers, and it is ongoing. Future demonstrations in schools and public events are planned, and the engaging demos have been used by ambassadors during university open days.

Dr Mai Sato is going a long way to changing Japan’s received notions of the legitimacy of the death penalty. Dr Sato began work on her project, Public attitudes towards the death penalty in Japan, in 2013, testing the Japanese government’s claim that the death penalty has widespread public support with attitudinal data. Dr Sato discovered that the majority of the population base their views on limited information and inaccurate perceptions, and that the Japanese public is ready to embrace the abolition of the death penalty. Dr Sato’s report, The Public Opinion Myth: Why Japan retains the Death Penalty, and The Wavering Public?, a documentary she commissioned, garnered extensive media coverage in Japan, thanks in part to her tireless efforts to build alliances and networks that would reach out to professional and policy audiences. The law may yet change in Japan – and, also, in India, Kenya, Zimbabwe and other jurisdictions that retain capital punishment, where Dr Sato has also been asked to conduct research.

Led by Dr Luke Barnard and Professor Chris Scott in the Department of Meteorology, its key components are citizen science, open research and worldwide public engagement.

In 2006, NASA launched the twin STEREO spacecraft. With cameras taking images of the sun’s surface, atmosphere and solar winds, the spacecraft were soon producing a huge volume of data that was challenging for scientists to analyse in detail and in a timely manner. Solar Stormwatch plugged the gap, developing web-based, real-time activities enabling the public to record storms and work with scientists. Space weather, a natural hazard listed in the government’s national risk register, is now better understood, and the project has generated a number of peer-reviewed publications. Worldwide, more than 16,000 people participate in Solar Stormwatch from 94 countries. The project is ongoing. It has led to a collaboration between the university and the Space Weather Prediction Center in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US, and the creation of new activities to answer new research questions established in this fastmoving, dynamic area of research.