Working Groups

Cultural Understanding

As the world becomes ever more interconnected, the way we understand each other's religions, politics and heritage will determine how well we adapt to future challenges. UCL's Grand Challenge of Cultural Understanding encompasses academics from across UCL and supports UCL researchers to make new and innovative collaborations across a range of disciplines and with external partners. At the same time, the programme's purpose is to see knowledge generated by research and scholarship at UCL achieve real-world influence. The group is coordinated by Ethne James-Souch, e.james-souch@ucl.ac.uk.

Co-Chairs

Professor Doug Bourn is the Director of the Development Education Research Centre in the UCL Institute of Education. The Centre acts as the hub for knowledge generation, new thinking and quality output on development education, global learning and global citizenship. Professor Bourn is also the course leader for the MA in development education.

> View Professor Doug Bourn's IRIS profile  

Professor Audrey Prost is the Director of the Centre for the Health of Women, Children and Adolescents, at UCL’s Institute for Global Health. Professor Prost received her PhD in Social Anthropology from University College London in 2004, followed by a Career Development Fellowship from the UK's Medical Research Council (2005-2008), during which she trained in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Professor Prost also contributes to the MSc in Global Health and Development. 

> View Professor Audrey Prost's IRIS profile

View all Cultural Understanding working group members

Member	Affiliation
Dr Tariq Jazeel	Department of Geography, Social & Historical Sciences
Professor Monica Lakhanpaul	Institute of Child Health, Population Health Sciences
Dr Jagjeet Lally	Department of History, Social & Historical Sciences
Siobhan Morris	UCL Grand Challenges, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Dr Hélène Neveu Kringelbach	Department of Anthropology, Social & Historical Sciences
Dr Priti Parikh	Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, Faculty of the Built Environment
Dr Uta Staiger	European Institute, Laws
Bryan Taylor	Global Engagement, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Dr Helen Tsui	Innovation & Enterprise, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Katherine Welch	UCL Grand Challenges, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement

Global Health 

Members of the Working Group are drawn from academic units ranging from Population Health Sciences and Medical Sciences to the UCL Instititute of Education. The group is coordinated by Sandhya Seetah, s.seetah@ucl.ac.uk.

Co-Chairs

Professor Nora Groce, Director of the Leonard Cheshire Disability & Inclusive Development Centre at UCL, based in UCL Epidemiology & Public Health, is a medical anthropologist who works on issues of global health, international development and human rights, with a particular focus on global disability issues. Her research over the years has concentrated on vulnerable groups, with attention to the interface between persons with disability and access to adequate health care and inclusion in international development programs.

> View Professor Groce's IRIS profile

Professor Megan Vaughan is Professor of African History and Health in the Institute for Advanced Studies. Her work, which crosses disciplinary boundaries, has focused on the history of medicine and psychiatry in Africa, on the history of famine, food supply and gender relations and on slavery in the Indian Ocean region. She began her career at the University of Malawi and maintains strong links there and elsewhere in the region. She is committed to working collaboratively with African scholars and institutions and is a past President of the African Studies Association of the UK.

> View Professor Vaughan's IRIS profile

Professor Sahra Gibbon is Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology. She has a long standing interest in expanding the scope of cross-disciplinary research and teaching, particularly in relation to addressing and intervening on health inequalities. Her research also includes the politics of personalised medicine, genetic ancestry, identity and risk and also more recently rare genetic disease. Professor Gibbon continues to develop a range of collaborative research with colleagues in Brazil and Mexico which includes engaging with diverse traditions of medical anthropology.

> View Professor Gibbon's IRIS profile

View all Global Health Working Group members

Member	Affiliation
Dr Ruth Bell	Institute of Health Equity, Population Health Sciences
Helen Craig	Public Engagement, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Professor Ama de-Graft Aikins	Institute of Advanced Studies, Social & Historical Sciences
Professor Sarah Hawkes	Institute for Global Health, Population Health Sciences
Sam Mardell	Division of Infection & Immunity, Medical Sciences
Liz Almond	Grand Challenges, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Professor Tim McHugh	Division of Infection & Immunity, Medical Sciences
Professor Moses Oketch	Education, Practice & Society, Institute of Education
Dr James Paskins	Grand Challenges, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Dr Marina Romanello	Institute for Global Health, Population Health Sciences
Katherine Welch	Public Policy, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Professor Ijeoma Uchegbu	Pharmaceutics, Life Sciences
Professor Haim Yacobi	Development Planning Unit, Built Environment

Human Wellbeing

Members of the Working Group are drawn from academic units ranging from Population Health Sciences to the study of the built environment. The group is coordinated by Sandhya Seetah, s.seetah@ucl.ac.uk.

Co-Chairs

Professor Luiza Campos is Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering. Luiza's research is centered in three main areas: design and evaluation of innovative water & wastewater/sanitation treatment technologies; adaption of sanitation/wastewater infrastructure to climate change; development of tools for sanitation systems risk assessment and decision making on wastewater/sanitation technology use/application.

> View more on Dr Luiza Campos 

Professor Helene Joffe is Professor of Psychology with research interests in how people conceptualise science, various risks and the liveability of cities. Helene utilises social representations theory in many of her studies and is a mixed methods researcher - using both qualitative and quantitative methods, sometimes in a complementary way, depending on the research question.

> View more on Professor Helene Joffe 

View all Human Wellbeing Working Group members 

Member	Affiliation
Dr Mukdarut Bangpan	Social Sciences, Institute of Education
Sally Belcher	Occupational Health and Wellbeing, Vice-President (Operations)
Dr Henriette Bruun	Research Coordination and Planning, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Dr Paul Chadwick	Centre for Behaviour Change, Brain Sciences
Dr Nathan Davies	Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, Population Health Sciences
Dr Karen Groot	Populations and Lifelong Learning Domain
Niccola Hutchinson-Pascal	Centre for Co-production in Health Research, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Dr Maria Kett	Institute of Epidemiology & Health, Population Health Sciences
Dr Fabiana Lorencatto	Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, Brain Sciences
Dr James Paskins	Grand Challenges, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Dr Tejendra Pherali	Education, Practice & Society, Institute of Education
Dr Jacob Stougaard-Nielsen	Scandinavian Studies, Arts and Humanities
Professor Nick Tyler CBE	Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, Engineering
Katherine Welch	UCL Public Policy, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Dr Helge Wurdemann	Department of Mechanical Engineering, Engineering

Justice and Equality

Since its launch in 2016, UCL's Grand Challenge of Justice & Equality has worked to address how societal structures limit justice and sustain inequalities while considering radical solutions to tackle inequalities and change the status quo. The programme encompasses academics from across UCL and supports UCL researchers to make new and innovative collaborations across a range of disciplines. At the same time, the programme's purpose is to see knowledge generated by research and scholarship at UCL achieve real-world influence. The group is coordinated by The group is coordinated by Ethne James-Souch, e.james-souch@ucl.ac.uk.

Co-Chairs

Professor Louise Archer is the Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education at UCL IOE and co-chair of the Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity. Her research focuses on educational identities and inequalities, particularly in relation to gender, ethnicity and social class. Louise has previously undertaken studies on topics such as British Muslim students' identities and educational experiences; working-class access and non-participation in higher education; the factors behind British Chinese students' educational success; urban students' who are at risk of 'dropping out' of schooling and more recently research on inequalities in science participation.

> View more on Professor Louise Archer's IRIS profile 

Professor Nick Gallent is Professor of Housing and Planning at the Bartlett School of Planning. He is a geographer by training and was elected a Chartered Member of both the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in 2002 and 2007 respectively. He became a RICS Fellow in 2014, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2015 and a Fellow of the RTPI in 2017. He maintains a range of professional interests and was Head of the Bartlett School of Planning for 8 years between 2011 and 2019.

> View more on Professor Nick Gallent 

View all Justice and Equality Working Group members

Member	Affiliation
Briony Fleming	UCL Culture, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Professor Myriam Hunter-Henin	Faculty of Laws
Niccola Hutchinson-Pascal	CoProduction Collective, UCL LLCOS
Professor Gill Livingston	Division of Psychiatry, Faculty of Brain Sciences
Lucie March	Widening Participation
Siobhan Morris	UCL Grand Challenges, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Dr Konrad Miciukiewicz	Institute of Global Prosperity, Faculty of Built Environment
Dr Tom Pegram	Department of Political Science/School of Public Policy, Social & Historical Sciences
Dr Magda Raczynska	Faculty of Laws
Dr Kartikeya Tripathi	Department of Security and Crime Science, Faculty of Engineering Science
Dr Helen Tsui	Innovation & Enterprise, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement
Katherine Welch	UCL Public Policy, UCL Research Innovation & Global Engagement

Sustainable Cities Working Group

Research expertise in the working group comes from centres of expertise as diverse as education, engineering, urban planning and the environment. The group is coordinated by Lisa Juangbhanich, a.juangbhanich@ucl.ac.uk. 

Co-Chairs

Transformative Technology