People

Stacey is interested in the socio-psychological processes that shape behaviour in high-risk settings. Her expertise in the areas of trust, leadership, teamwork and culture has informed a number of projects with government, private industry, and charitable organisations focused on keeping people safe and secure. Stacey leads the national academic capability for behavioural science in national security (CREST); runs the national network for behavioural analytics in national security and defence (NABS+); and co-leads the EPSRC network focused on digital security, trust, identity and privacy (SPRITE+).

Martin leads the Security, Crime and Intelligence Innovation Institute at Cardiff University. His current research interests are in state threats, information influence operations and disinformation campaigns. He also has expertise in counter-terrorism, policing and social control, topics where his research has been internationally influential across both academic and policy communities. 

David is Professor of Statistical Learning in the School of Mathematical Sciences, Lancaster University. He develops machine learning algorithms that are at the core of modern AI, particularly around decision making, exploration and reinforcement learning.

He has led several large interdisciplinary projects including “ALADDIN (Autonomous Learning Agents for Distributed and Decentralised Information Networks)”, a strategic partnership between EPSRC and BAE Systems, and “Decision-making in an Unstable World”, an EPSRC-funded collaboration between psychologists, computer scientists, biologists and mathematicians to relate human and machine strategies for gathering and using information. 

Sophie is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Lancaster University. Her research interests mainly focus on the intersection of technology with human cognition and behaviour, particularly in security, legal, and forensic contexts.

Her work covers a range of topics including drawing on psychological and computational techniques to improve the detection of digitally manipulated/synthesised media and examining issues of bias and fairness in the application of technology. She currently holds a Future Leaders Fellowship and previously completed her postdoc at the University of Berkeley, California and PhD at the University of Warwick.

Patrick is Chair of Statistical Learning and Professor of Statistics at the School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh. He obtained his PhD in Statistics from Imperial College London in 2008, under the supervision of Professor Andrew Walden. In 2012, he was awarded a Heilbronn Research Fellowship in Data Science, which he held at both the University of Bristol and the University of Oxford.

He joined the University of Bristol as Assistant Professor of Statistics in July 2017 and was promoted to Full Professor in July 2022. His research interests include data exploration, embedding, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

Simona specialises in software-defined defence, digital transformation of defence, defence innovation, the adoption and applications of emerging technologies in defence capabilities, and the future of war. Simona is Senior Lecturer in Strategy and Technology at Lancaster University.

Simona is also the co-chair of the NATO Science and Technology Organisation panels on AI Adoption and Defence Interoperability and AI Safety and Assurance in Defence respectively and a Senior Associate Fellow on Defence Innovation with the NATO Defence College in Rome as well as with the Military Sciences programme at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London. 

Laura is Professor of Psychology at the University of Bath, and Deputy Director of NABS+. She is also Director of the Bath Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour and was joint Chief Editor of the British Journal of Social Psychology from 2020-2022.

Her research focuses on the psychology of polarization, radicalization, and mobilization of violent and non-violent group-based behaviour, with a current emphasis on the threats and risks associated with digital technologies.

Paul became the first Police Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) on 1 May 2021, connecting science and technology expertise in the UK and globally to enhance policing. As Police CSA, he guides critical strategies and decisions to protect millions.

Paul is Professor of Psychology at Lancaster University and founding director of the UK Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST). His research focuses on ‘quantifying the qualitative,’ and has ranged from finding behavioural measures of insider threat to studying unconscious nonverbal responses to threat.

John Towse is a Professor of Psychology at Lancaster University. He is an experimental psychologist with a broad range of research expertise. His work seeks to understand how cognitive decisions interact with computer systems & devices and has studied developers and engineers who create the software products that we rely on.

Other projects include the psychology of online fraud and trust, the development of behavioural regulation among children and adults, and pathways to greater transparency and sustainability in research practices.