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.

NABS+ ECR Steering Group Chair

Chloe Squires holds a PhD from the University of St Andrews and is a Doctoral Fellow at NABS+.

Her doctoral thesis addressed sentencing practices and processes surrounding female terrorism offenders in England and Wales. Alongside this work, Chloe has worked on projects funded by the Department of Homeland Security, Public Safety Canada, and is a current member of the Compar-E and IN-COURT networks funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research.

Alongside being a member of the NABS+ ECR Steering Group, Chloe is co-ordinator of the TPVNextGen network established at the Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, and is passionate about supporting Early Career Researchers needs, and facilitating supportive ECR communities.

Domenico Galimi is a member of the NABS+ ECR Steering Group. Trained in classical philosophy and law before moving into criminology and forensic psychology, he approaches political violence transdisciplinarily, combining evolutionary behavioural science, narrative criminology, comparative law, and moral philosophy. His research interests include how militant organisations evolve over time, non-ideological pathways to violence, how jurisdictions across legal traditions qualify conduct as terrorism, and the philosophical problem of evil: how "evil" operates as a label across law, criminology, and popular culture, and what it conceals about the people and possibilities, including rehabilitation, that it forecloses.

He completed his PhD in Criminology and Terrorism Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London, where his doctoral research developed the Vectors of Evolutionary Change framework through a case study of the Italian Red Brigades; the framework recently appeared in Behavioural Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, and a monograph based on the thesis is in review with Routledge. He teaches at Royal Holloway and Regent's University London, and is a qualified Advocate and Chartered Criminologist. He previously served as a professional consultant to the Italian Ministry of Justice, sitting on the scientific committee that produced iGloss@, Italy's official cybercrime lexicon developed in collaboration with Google and Facebook, and was Head of International Affairs at the National Observatory on Cybercrime.

Cassie Lowery is a Research Associate with NABS+. Her research interests focus on topics at the intersection of psychology and technology, including how digital environments shape group‑based behaviours, both online and offline, and how insights from digital traces and new technologies can deepen our understanding of human behaviour.

She recently completed her PhD at the University of Bath through the Bristol and Bath Centre for Doctoral Training in Cybersecurity. Her thesis examined digitally coordinated political actions, and investigated the cybersecurity implications of crowdsourced mobilisation, and the psychological factors shaping participation in online activism. She is also a member of the Bath Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour.

Rachel is a PhD researcher in Security and Crime Science at UCL. Her research examines unwanted sexualised behaviour in immersive environments, including users’ experiences of these behaviours, the safety work undertaken to navigate immersive environments, and the implications for safety, governance and policing. Her wider research interests include online harms, emerging technologies and policing. She is particularly interested in applying crime science approaches to emerging forms of harm and translating research into practical responses for policy and practice.

Jenny Ratcliffe is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Coventry University's Protective Security Lab. Her research focuses upon the significance and complexity of trust, identity and communication in different security and defence contexts. She is currently working on the ESRC IMITATE3 project, which will deliver innovative insights and evidence on how foreign-state information influence operations have an impact on public opinion and policy decisions. Jenny continues to work with a number of government departments and agencies, whilst also bringing her own inside experience from previous government and policy roles. Jenny brings a collaborative approach and a deep curiosity and drive to work with the ECR community, to support the development and evolution of behavioural insights in defence and security contexts.

Amber Seaward holds a PhD in Security and Crime Science from UCL and is currently a postdoctoral Research Fellow within UCL’s Counter Terrorism Research Group. Her PhD research centred on the threat assessment of terrorism and targeted violence, including focusing on safeguarding, mental health, evaluations, and risk factors for different roles. Amber has worked on projects with or commissioned by the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, the UK Home Office, NCITE, Prevent’s Vulnerability Support Hubs, Theseus, the US Department of Homeland Security, and the Youth Endowment Fund.