LCKD Investigators
Professor James Ainge,
University of St Andrews
Professor James Ainge is Head of the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, where the focus of his lab is to try and understand the neural mechanisms that support our ability to remember the things that have happened to us – episodic memory. Ainge has published many articles in prestigious venues, including Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, Current Biology, Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, Hippocampus, and Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. Most of his work takes a systems neuroscience approach to examine how networks within the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex process memory information. He uses in vivo electrophysiology to examine firing patterns of individual neurons as lab rats carry out memory tasks. He also uses molecular and genetic tools to manipulate the network and understand the cellular mechanisms underlying episodic memory. Complimenting the neuroscientific approach, other lines of research in the lab examine the cognitive mechanisms underlying episodic memory in both human adults and children. Ultimately, the lab aims to apply this work by using our knowledge of mammalian memory networks to help test therapeutic strategies for disorders of memory such as Alzheimer’s disease. For more about Professor Ainge’s work, see here https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/psychology-neuroscience/people/jaa7
LCKD Research Contribution: Ainge’s expertise in the neural and cognitive mechanisms that underly episodic memory will support ReasoningLab’s investigation of memory’s susceptibility to misleading evidence and bias.
Professor Jessica Brown,
University of St Andrews
Professor Jessica Brown is Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews, internationally known for her work in epistemology and the methodology of philosophy. Her research appears regularly in leading philosophy journals including Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Nous, Mind, and Philosophical Studies. She has authored three research monographs with premier presses: Anti-Individualism and Knowledge (MIT 2004), Fallibilism: Evidence and Knowledge (OUP 2018), and Groups As Epistemic and Moral Agents (OUP 2024). Her recent work focuses on topics including epistemic responsibility and blame, and the epistemic agency of collective entities such as governments, corporations, and scientific communities. Her contributions have been recognized through her election as Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and appointments as President of the Mind Association (2023-4) and the Aristotelian Society (2027-8). She also serves as President of the British Society for the Theory of Knowledge (2020-). Brown has secured prestigious major research funding, including a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, Royal Society of Edinburgh Network Grant, and AHRC Major Research Grant, demonstrating her leadership in coordinating international research teams and organizing major academic events. As a PhD supervisor, she has guided over 25 students to successful completion, with many now holding academic positions at prestigious institutions worldwide. For more on Professor Brown’s work, see https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/philosophy/people/jab30
LCKD Research Contribution: Brown’s expertise in epistemic responsibility and the epistemology of groups will support TrustLab’s investigation of trust in collectives and triggers of distrust in institutions.
Professor Adam Carter,
University of Glasgow
Professor J Adam Carter is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, where he is Deputy Director of the COGITO Epistemology Research Centre and works mainly in epistemology, having published widely (over 10 books and 100 articles) in elite philosophical venues (e.g., Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Nous, Journal of Philosophy, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research) on themes including virtue epistemology, knowledge-how, and social epistemology, epistemic dependence and achievement, and the epistemology of technology and AI. Carter has led major research projects funded by the Leverhulme Trust (on trust and trustworthiness (2019-2024) and the AHRC (on digital knowledge and scaffolded intellectual abilities (2022-2025) and epistemic autonomy 2022-2025). His research has won international prizes including the 2019 Philosophical Quarterly international essay prize and has appeared in the Philosophers’ Annual, which recognises the discipline’s top 10 papers for the year. Carter is editor of the top-5 generalist philosophy journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Associate Editor at Cambridge University Press’s Epistemology Elements series, and epistemology area editor at Ergo. His research on knowledge and mental privacy has informed the United Nations General Assembly, while his research on combatting misinformation has included collaborations with Ofcom, the Alan Turing Institute, the BBC, and the UK Safer Internet Institute. For more on Professor Carter's work, see. https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/jadamcarter/
LCKD Research Contribution: Carter’s expertise in the epistemology of trust and skills in trusting will support TrustLab’s investigation of rational trust and trustworthiness, and his work in and digital epistemology will support MindTechLab’s research on epistemologically secure cognitive technologies
Professor Simon Dobson,
University of St Andrews
Professor Simon Dobson is Professor of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Dobson works on complex and sensor systems, focusing on sensor analytics and the modelling of complex processes – and especially on the intersection of the two, which is sometimes called “digital twins”. His research has generated over 150 internationally peer-reviewed publications, driven by leadership roles in multi-million research grants – most recently as part of a EPSRC-funded programme grant in the Science of Sensor Systems Software. He has served, amongst other activities, on the steering committee of the ACSOS conference, the premier conference in his field; as programme and general chairs for the IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing; as an associate editor of ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems; as a member of the executive of UKCRC, the expert committee on UK computing research; as the chair of the BCS Distinguished PhD Dissertations award panel; and on the programme committees of a wide range of leading international conferences and specialised workshops. He was a director and vice-president of the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics from 2006 – 2009, and has served on a number of national and EU committees and strategic initiatives. For more on Professor Dobson’s work, see here https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/computer-science/people/sd80/
LCKD Research Contribution: Dobson’s expertise in network science, in particular on the spread of mis/information in social networks, will support MediaLab’s investigation of information proliferation challenges between groups.
Professor David Donaldson,
University of St Andrews
Professor David Donaldson is a Professor of Psychology at the University of St Andrews, where he works in Cognitive Neuroscience and is a member of the Centre for Higher Education Research. Donaldson is primarily interested in understanding human episodic memory - asking questions such as 'why does memory decline with age?', 'why is it so easy to recognise familiar faces, but so difficult to recognise unfamiliar faces?' and 'when I leave work, why can’t I recall where I parked my car that day?' Professor Donaldson moved to the University of St Andrews on 1st January 2020, becoming a Professor in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience, where he uses mobile EEG to examine human behaviour during real-world activity. As well as taking the study of memory outside of the lab, he is also interested in extending the range of topics that EEG is used for, including spatial navigation and attention, and applied issues such as understanding sporting behaviour. Professor Donaldson’s research is thoroughly collaborative and he remains curious and interested in how brain imaging can help inform psychological models of the mind, and keen to learn new techniques, paradigms and approaches. For more on Professor Donaldson’s work, see here https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/psychology-neuroscience/people/did1/
LCKD Research Contribution: Donaldson's expertise in the psychology of memory will support ReasoningLab’s inquiry into memory distortions and the development of interventions for enhancing knowledge storage.
Dr. Emma Gordon,
University of Glasgow
Dr Emma C. Gordon is a Lecturer in Applied Ethics at the University of Glasgow's Department of Philosophy, Head of Interdisciplinary Research at the COGITO Epistemology Research Centre, and a steering committee member of the University’s Centre for Neurotechnology. Her research spans applied ethics—covering bioethics, neuroethics (including neurotechnology ethics), medical ethics, technology ethics, and ethics of gender and race—as well as normative ethics and epistemology. She focuses on moral psychology, philosophy of love, trust, emotions, well-being, social epistemology, intellectual virtues and vices, and the ethics of knowledge sharing. Gordon’s interdisciplinary work combines philosophy with medicine (e.g., pharmacology, dependence, addiction) and psychology (e.g., counselling, psychotherapy). Her recent monograph, Human Enhancement and Well-Being (Routledge, 2023), reflects this approach. An elected member and 2024 board member of the Young Academy of Europe, where she Chairs the Selection Committee, her bioethics publications feature in top journals such as Bioethics, Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, PLOS Biology, and Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. Her most recent work (with Anil Seth, Brian Earp, and Julian Savulescu) discusses the ethical implications of brain-computer interface use and the implication of new technologies on authenticity, achievement and value. For more on Dr Gordon’s work, see here https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/emmagordon/
LCKD Research Contribution: Gordon’s expertise in ethics, particularly her work on neuroethics and technological human enhancement will support MindTech’s investigation of the ethical implications and of neurotechnologies.
Professor Daniele Faccio is Professor of Physics at the University of Glasgow. He joined the University of Glasgow in December 2017, having previously been at Heriot-Watt University from 2010 to 2017. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2017. He has served as a visiting scientist at MIT (USA), a Marie-Curie fellow at ICFO in Barcelona (Spain), and held a major ERC grant from 2012 to 2017. In recognition of his work, he was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Physics in 2015 and the Royal Society of Edinburgh Senior Public Engagement Medal in 2017. His research interests encompass imaging and quantum technologies applied to imaging and sensing. His research has appeared in the most prestigious disciplinary venues and has been funded many times by the UKRI and the European Research Council as well as other leading scientific funders. The research group also explores analogue gravity, investigating curved spacetimes in the laboratory using intense laser pulses and light-matter interaction to simulate phenomena such as artificial black holes and "expanding universes." For more on Professor Faccio’s work, see here https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/physics/staff/danielefaccio/
LCKD Research Contribution: Faccio's expertise in quantum technologies for imaging and sensing supports MindTech’s investigation of next-generation brain-computer interfaces and their impacts on human cognition.
Professor Daniele Faccio,
University of Glasgow
Professor Simon Hanslmayr,
University of Glasgow
Professor Simon Hanslmayr is Professor of Cognitive Neuroimaging in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow and Director of the Centre of Neurotechnology. A leading scholar in cognitive neuroscience and neurotechnology, his research focuses on human electrophysiology, particularly brain oscillations and their role in cognitive functions like attention and memory. His lab employs a multi-modal approach, combining neuroimaging, computational methods, and neurostimulation to understand how brain oscillations influence perception and memory. With multi-million grant funding, his lab has developed innovative brain stimulation protocols using sensory rhythmic stimulation, rTMS, and transcranial electric stimulation to investigate the causal relationship between brain oscillations and memory. His groundbreaking research showing enhanced associative memory through synchronized multi-sensory stimuli has influenced industry development, leading to collaborations with two Neurotech startups: Clarity Technologies Inc., developing VR-based memory enhancement, and Braingrade GmbH, working on memory prosthetics for Alzheimer's patients. Hanslmayr serves as academic editor for PLoS Biology, where he recently edited a special issue on Neurotechnology, and holds editorial positions with the Journal of Neuroscience, Scientific Reports, and Cognitive Neuroscience. He is also a standing member of the Wellcome Trust's Scientific Advisory Board for Brain and Behavioural Sciences. For more on Professor Hanslmayr’s work, see here https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/psychologyneuroscience/staff/simonhanslmayr/
LCKD Research Contribution: Hanslmayr’s expertise on neural oscillations and brain stimulation techniques will support MindTechLab’s investigation of ethical and knowledge-conducive memory enhancement technologies.
Dr. Catherine Happer,
University of Glasgow
Dr Catherine Happer is Senior Lecturer in Sociological & Cultural Studies at the University of Glasgow, where she serves as Director of the Glasgow University Media Group and Head of the Media, Culture and Society subject group. Her research applies innovative methods to examine how news media shapes public opinions and behaviours, particularly regarding climate transitions. She brings substantial project management experience from several major funded projects, including an EPSRC study with Computing Scientists (as PI) and collaborations with Glasgow City Council and the Avatar Alliance Foundation. Her work with Chatham House on a multinational project spanning China, Brazil, US, and UK won Prospect Magazine's 2016 award for UK International Affairs and Energy and Environment research. Her research on media and opinion formation is synthesized in a 2024 Manchester University Press monograph. As a leader, she manages 28 staff members and has supervised 13 PhD students. Happer serves on the editorial board of the journal Sociology and reviews for major funding bodies including UKRI and Fulbright. Her policy engagement includes workshops at the UN Climate Conference (COP21), evidence submissions to Parliament, and membership of the Scottish Government's Public Interest Journalism Working Group. She regularly contributes expertise to major media outlets including BBC Radio Scotland, BBC World Service, and Al Jazeera. For more on Dr Happer’s work, see here https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/staff/catherinehapper/
LCKD Research Contribution: Happer’s expertise in the media’s role in shaping public opinion will support MediaLab’s investigation of how media interactions affect public understanding and of norms for media communication.
Professor Joemon Jose,
University of Glasgow
Professor Joemon Jose is a Professor of Information Retrieval at the School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow. He holds an MSc in Statistics, MS in Software Engineering and a PhD in Computing Science. He is currently the convener of the School Research Committee and a member of the College Ethics Committee. He is a Fellow of the BCS and IET professional bodies and a chartered Information Technology Professional. He is a member of the IEEE and ACM and also a member of the ACM SIGIR and the BCS IRSG specialist groups. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Multimedia Retrieval from Springer. He hosted many IR conferences in Glasgow and recently was one of the co-chairs of the ECDL 2010 conference. He very active in Information Retrieval research and has authored over 150 research articles. He is a co-recipient of many best paper awards and/or best student paper awards including that from the ACM SIGIR. So far he has supervised over 10 PhD students and over 20 post-doctoral researchers and hosted many visiting IR researchers. During 2004-05, he was a visiting research fellow at the CMU, USA. He is interested in all aspects of information retrieval in the textual and multimedia domain. He was the principle investigator of a number of externally funded projects (e.g.,SALERO, K-SPACE, SEMEDIA, MIAUCE, ADAPT, POW ) and has attracted several million pounds in research income. He has consulted or had research collaborations with a number of industrial organizations including BT, SHARP and Kodak. For more about ProfessorJose’s work, see here https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/computing/staff/joemonjose/
LCKD Research Contribution: Jose’s expertise in information retrieval, particularly social media retrieval, will support InfoLab’s development of responsible and explainable misinformation-tracking AI tools.
Professor Christoph Kelp,
University of Glasgow
Professor Christoph Kelp is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Glasgow and Vice Director of COGITO Epistemology Research Centre. In addition, he is Director of The British Society for the Theory of Knowledge and of The European Consortium for Knowledge and Information Research, Elected Member of the Executive Committee of the Mind Association, and Steering Committee Member of the European Epistemology Network and of the Social Epistemology Network. He is also Area Editor for Epistemology at Ergo, Member of the Editorial Board of The Philosophical Quarterly, and he has been Guest Editor for Synthese, Philosophical Issues, and Philosophical Topics. His research focuses on issues in epistemology, philosophy of language, the philosophy of science, ethics and their intersection. His publications include many books and articles in prestigious presses, including The Nature and Normativity of Defeat (CUP, 2023) Inquiry, Knowledge, and Understanding (OUP, 2021), Sharing Knowledge. A Functionalist Account of Asssertion (with M. Simion, CUP, 2021), Good Thinking: A Knowledge First Virtue Epistemology (Routledge 2018), and Virtue Theoretic Epistemology: New Methods and Approaches (with J. Greco, CUP, 2020). In 2017, his paper ‘Inquiry and the Transmission of Knowledge’ won the Young Epistemologist Prize. For more on Professor Kelp’s work, see here https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/christophkelp/
LCKD Research Contribution: Kelp’s expertise in the epistemology of inquiry, information and knowledge transmission will support InfoLab’s analyses of mis/dis/information, and ReasoningLab’s cogent reasoning framework.
Professor Ewa Luger,
University of Edinburgh
Professor Ewa Luger is Professor in Human-Data Interaction at the University of Edinburgh and co-Programme Director of the multi-million Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) initiative. Her work focuses on bridging divides between academic, industry, policy, and regulatory work on responsible AI, integrating insights from arts, humanities, and social sciences. She brings extensive experience as a former Microsoft Research UK researcher, Alan Turing Institute fellow (2018-23), and Cambridge University Fellow, building on 15 years of advocacy for digital inclusion among marginalized groups. Luger co-directs the EPSRC Responsible NLP CDT and has secured multi-million external funding over career to date. Her expertise is regularly sought by international organizations including the World Economic Forum, European Commission, and major technology companies. She serves on the DCMS college of experts and the Centre for Artificial Intelligence leadership council, and is currently leading a European Commission policy review on AI's societal impacts. Her recent book What do we Know and What Should we do About AI? (2023) makes normative AI debates accessible to non-academic audiences. She is also founder of the Conversations workshop series on intelligent voice agents, where she continues to bridge research and practice in human-AI interaction. For more on Professor Luger’s work, see here https://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/profile/professor-ewa-luger
LCKD Research Contribution: Luger’s expertise in human-data interaction and responsible AI will support MediaLab’s understanding of how to reimagine user experience design to defend users against misinformation.
Dr. Aidan McGlynn,
University of Edinburgh
Dr Aidan McGlynn is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, where he is a leading figure in epistemology and its intersections with language, mind, social, and feminist philosophy. His influential monograph Knowledge First? (Palgrave 2012) provides a critical examination of non-reductive accounts of propositional knowledge in the ‘knowledge-first’ tradition. His research, published in prestigious journals including Noûs, Episteme, Philosophical Psychology, and Synthese, spans both theoretical and applied epistemology. McGlynn's current work investigates a broad range of interconnected topics, including skepticism, self-knowledge, standpoint epistemology, epistemic injustice, and deep disagreement, reflecting his commitment to addressing both traditional philosophical questions and contemporary social issues. He is currently advancing the field through two major projects: authoring a book on epistemic injustice and co-editing the Oxford Handbook of Social Epistemology (with Jennifer Lackey). He has recently been appointed co-editor of the prestigious journal Hypatia (the discipline’s top journal in feminist philosophy) and he holds a position as Senior Research Associate at the African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, University of Johannesburg. For more on Dr McGlynn’s work, see here https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/aidan-mcglynn
LCKD Research Contribution: McGlynn’s expertise in social-epistemic harms, active ignorance, and feminist epistemology will support ReasoningLab’s examination of how biased reasoning generates epistemic injustice.
Dr. David McMenemy,
University of Glasgow
Dr David McMenemy is Reader in Information Studies at the University of Glasgow. His research interests encompass information ethics and law, including intellectual freedom, and freedom of expression, freedom of access to information, digital citizenship, privacy, and the philosophy of informatio. David was Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded project, “Downloading a new normal: Privacy, exclusion, and information behaviour in public library digital services use during COVID”, which ran from December 2020 to February 2022. He recently completed work on the REVEAL Project, funded by the CILIPS Research Fund, in August 2023. David is Vice President of CILIP Scotland in 2024 and will take on the Presidency in 2025. Some of McMenemy’s recent research includes a role as CI on the RSE-funded project “Electronic Surveillance Laws and Cyber-Security of Journalists in Australia and the UK” led by Professor Angela Daly, a report in collaboration with Scottish PEN on the impact of government and corporate surveillance on Scottish writers, an exploration of how character building can be incorporated into information literacy education models, and a white paper on digital ethics. For more on Dr McMenemy’s work, see here https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/davidmcmenemy/
LCKD Research Contribution: McMenemy’s expertise in information ethics and law will support InfoLab’s inquiry into misinformation and freedom of expression, and MediaLabs study of responsible information behaviours.
Professor Nasar Meer,
University of Glasgow
Professor Nasar Meer is Professor of Social & Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow, and an Honorary Professor in the School of Social & Political Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. He was previously Professor of Sociology and Director of RACE.ED at the University of Edinburgh (2017-2023), and Professor of Comparative Social Policy at the University of Strathclyde (2014-2017). He has held a Visiting Professorship at the University of Copenhagen (2020), a Minda de Gunzburg Fellowship at Harvard University (2012-2013), and a Resident Visiting Fellowship in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh (2012-2013). Professor Meer is co-Investigator of The Impacts of the Pandemic on Ethnic and Racialized Groups in the UK (UKRI-ESRC) and Principal Investigator of the Governance and Local Integration of Migrants and Europe's Refugees (GLIMER) (JPI ERA Net / Horizon-2020). He served as Commissioner on the Royal Society of Edinburgh Post-COVID-19 Futures Inquiry (2020- 2021), as a Member of the Scottish Government COVID-19 and Ethnicity Expert Reference Group (2020-1), Member of the Anti-Racism Interim Governance Group (AIGG) (2022-2023) established by Ministerial Appointment 2022, and Advisor to The Independent Public Inquiry on the death of Sheku Bayou led by Lord The Rt. Hon. Lord Bracadale. He currently Chairs the Academic Committee of The Stuart Hall Foundation (SHF) and is an elected Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS), Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) and the British Academy (FBA). For more on Professor Meer’s work, see here https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/staff/nasarmeer/
LCKD Research Contribution: Meer’s expertise in social trust, governance, and integration will support TrustLab’s investigation of trust dynamics across cultures and of triggers of distrust between citizenry and institutions.
Professor Lars Muckli,
University of Glasgow
Professor Lars Muckli is Professor of Visual and Cognitive Neurosciences , Director of fMRI at the Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (CCNI) and Co-chair of 7T-Imaging Center of Excellence (ICE) MRI at the University of Glasgow. His work has appeared in prestigious venues including Biology, Cerebral Cortex, and Nature Communications. His work focuses on brain imaging of cortical feedback, investigation of layer specific fMRI, and multi-level cross –species computational neuroscience. The Muckli-lab was previously funded by ERC consolidator grant on ‘Brain reading of contextual feedback and predictions’. Since 2016, Lars is member of the Human Brain Project (HBP), leading a work package on rodent and human neuroscience. Before his move to Glasgow in 2007, Lars Muckli worked at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research with Rainer Goebel (1996-2000) and Wolf Singer (1996-2007). Muckli studied Cognitive Psychology (in Gießen, Germany 1992-7, and UCL, London 1995), with minors in Mathematics, Medicine and Philosophy, before he moved to work at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt (PhD in 2002). In 2004 he contributed to the foundation of the Frankfurt Brain Imaging Centre (F-BIC). In 2007, he moved to Glasgow and contributed to the opening of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (CCNI) in 2008 and the Imaging Centre of Excellence (ICE) in 2017. For more on Professor Muckli’s work, see here:
https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/psychologyneuroscience/staff/larsmuckli/#researchinterests
LCKD Research Contribution: Muckli’s expertise in multi-modal brain imaging, will support MindTechLab’s development of epistemically beneficial and ethically robust cognitive enhancement technologies and neural interfaces.
Dr Akira O'Connor is Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, based at the Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences. O’Connor specialises in the cognitive and neural foundations of episodic memory judgments. His research employs cognitive experimental methods, quantitative analysis, and advanced neuroimaging techniques (fMRI and fcMRI) to understand how we make decisions about our memories. He has made significant contributions to understanding memory phenomena, particularly in the study of déjà vu and déjà vécu, which includes journal articles and a co-edited 2022 Routledge volume on these topics. O'Connor's work also investigates memory-expectation conflict and the relationship between functional connectivity and task-evoked activation in fMRI studies of memory. His scholarly impact is evidenced by numerous publications in prestigious venues, including his recent 2024 Routledge monograph Colonised minds: Narratives that Shape Psychology. For more about Dr O’Connor’s work, see here https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/psychology-neuroscience/people/aro2/
LCKD Research Contribution: O’Connor’s expertise on episodic memory judgments and memory-expectation conflict will support ReasoningLab’s exploration of memory distortions and their impact on evidence uptake.
Dr. Akira O'Connor,
University of St Andrews
Professor George Pavlakos,
University of Glasgow
Professor George Pavlakos is Professor of Law and Philosophy at the School of Law, University of Glasgow, and co-founder of the Law and Philosophy Network. He was previously Research Professor of Globalisation and Legal Theory and director of the Centre for Law and Cosmopolitan Values at the University of Antwerp and has held appointments as visiting Professor at the University of Kiel, the University of Bologna, Beihang University, the European Academy of Legal Theory in Brussels, the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences (USTAV), and the University of Sao Paolo (USP). Since 2019 he serves on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Legal Theory (IVR). His research focuses on the metaphysics of law, relational accounts of normativity and the legal philosophy of Kant and has appeared in Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Legal Theory, the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Ratio Juris and Rechtstheorie. He has published monographs in English and German, and his papers have appeared in English, German, Greek, French, Czech, Chinese and Spanish. George is currently working on a monograph under the working title A Relations-First Account of Law: The Metaphysics of Radical Non-Positivism. Over the years his research has been supported by two Alexander von Humboldt Fellowships, an FWO-Odysseus grant, a J.E. Purkyne Senior Research Fellowship (Czech Academy of Sciences) and a Fernand Braudel Senior Fellowship (EUI, Florence). George is an editor of the Cambridge Elements in Legal Philosophy; a general editor of the journal Jurisprudence (Taylor & Francis); and the lead editor of the book series Law and Practical Reason (Hart Publishing). For more on Professor Pavlakos’s work, see here https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/law/staff/georgiospavlakos/#biography
LCKD Research Contribution: Pavlakos’s expertise on legal obligations beyond state-based institutions will support TrustLab’s study of institutional trust and InfoLab’s models of legal responsibility for misuse of AI.
Professor Glen Pettigrove is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, where he holds the Chair in Moral Philosophy. His primary research interests are in virtue ethics and moral psychology, though his work also spans Social and Political Philosophy and the philosophy of emotion. His recent publications have investigated emotions like anger, guilt, and shame and activities such as forgiving and reconciling following ruptures in trust. Some of his work on character focuses on particular traits, including ambition, meekness, cheerfulness, and grace. Other work looks at the development of character-based normative ethical theories. Intertwined with the abovementioned projects is an ongoing engagement with Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, especially Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, and Adam Smith. Pettigrove has published articles in elite venues such as Ethics, the flagship ethics journal in the field, and his monograph Forgiveness an Love was published by Oxford University Press in 2012. For more in Professor Pettigrove’s work, see here https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/glenpettigrove/#researchinterests
LCKD Research Contribution: Pettigrove's expertise in moral psychology, reconciliation and moral repair, will support TrustLab’s investigation of triggers of trust rupture and strategies for rebuilding trust relations.
Professor Glen Pettigrove,
University of Glasgow
Dr. Patricia Rossini,
University of Glasgow
Dr Patrícia Rossini is a Senior Lecturer in Communication, Media & Democracy at the University of Glasgow. Most of her work has focused on understanding digital threats to democracy, such as the dynamics of uncivil and intolerant online discourse, misinformation, and disinformation. This research agenda on digital threats to democracy has received major funding as a PI and as part of interdisciplinary teams, with a network of collaborators that spans several countries, such as the United States, Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Hong Kong, Belgium, and Brazil. Rossini published 42 journal articles in top journals such as New Media & Society, Communication Research, Social Media & Society, International Journal of Communication and Political Studies. She is in the editorial board of Communication Research and Political Communication, and is incoming associate editor for the Journal of Press/Politics. In 2023, she received the Walter Lippmann Best Published Article Award in Political Communication for “Beyond Incivility: Understanding Patterns of Uncivil and Intolerant Discourse in Online Political Talk”, given by the Political Communication division of the American Political Science Association. Prior to joining UofG, she was an inaugural Derby Fellow in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool (2019-22), and a post-doctoral researcher at the School of Information Studies (iSchool) at Syracuse University (2017-19). For more on Dr Rossini’s work, see here https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/staff/patriciarossini/
LCKD Research Contribution: Rossini's expertise in digital threats to democracy and mis/disinformation, will support InfoLab’s investigation of information challenges and MediaLab’s study of information literacy practices.
Professor E Marian Scott is Professor of Environmental Statistics at the University of Glasgow, where she has received numerous prestigious honours including an Officer of the Order of the British Empire OBE (2009), the Royal Statistical Society's Barnett Award (2019), the Edinburgh Mathematical Society Impact Award (2020), and the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Lord Kelvin Medal (2024). Her research applies statistical methods to environmental sciences, focusing on water and air quality, monitoring network design, environmental indicators, and environmental state quantification. With over 220 published research papers, she has received several multi-million research grants and she currently leads major interdisciplinary projects including GALLANT (UKRI-NERC, ) and MOT4Rivers (UKRI NERC). Scott's expertise is widely sought after in policy and advisory roles; she serves on science advisory committees for DEFRA, NatureScot, and NERC, while also chairing the EU scientific committee on health, environment and emerging risks (SCHEER). For more on Professor Scott’s work, see here https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/mathematicsstatistics/staff/escott/
LCKD Research Contribution: Scott’s expertise in statistical methods and the design of monitoring networks will support InfoLab’s development of misinformation tracking AI tools and ReasoningLab’s study of cogent reasoning.
Professor Marian Scott,
University of Glasgow
Professor Mona Simion,
University of Glasgow
Professor Mona Simion is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Cogito Epistemology Research Centre at the University of Glasgow. Her research is mainly in epistemology, philosophy of language, and moral & political philosophy. She is the author of 'Resistance to Evidence' (Cambridge University Press 2024), 'Shifty Speech and Independent Thought' (Oxford University Press 2021), and 'Sharing Knowledge' (CUP, 2021, with C. Kelp). . She is the 2018 Mind Fellow and the winner of the Young Epistemologist Prize 2021. She has been Principal Investigator on a major 5-year ERC-funded research project, KnowledgeLab: Knowledge-First Social Epistemology, that has developed new methodological tools for the study of social epistemic interaction. She has also been Co-Investigator on the Leverhulme Trust-funded 'Virtue Epistemology of Trust' project (with A. Carter and C. Kelp) and Principal Investigator on the 'Dimensions of Wellbeing' industry-funded project (with C. Kelp). Before this, she held several prestigious research fellowships, including the Mind Association Fellowship for her 'Epistemic Norms and Epistemic Functions' project. She is Associate Editor at Philosophical Studies​, Managing Editor at Ergo, and sits on the Editorial Board of the Philosophical Quarterly. She also sits on the Executive Committee of the Initiative for Science in Europe, the Executive Committee of the Aristotelian Society, the Advisory Council of the Institute of Philosophy, and the Management Committee of the British Society for Theory of Knowledge. For more on Prof Simion’s work, see https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/monasimion/#biography
LCKD Research Contribution: Simion's expertise in evidence resistance and distrust in expertise, information and disinformation, cogent reasoning, and the epistemology of the media and AI uniquely positions her to lead LCKD and contribute to the Centre’s research across all Labs.
Professor Martin Smith,
University of Edinburgh
Professor Martin Smith is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is an internationally renowned epistemologist known for his work on justified belief, epistemic logic and decision theory. He has also worked on a number of topics in applied epistemology, including legal standards of proof and the status of testimony and forensic evidence in the law. In recent years his research has turned towards the philosophy of risk – a new, but fast growing, area of interdisciplinary research, in which he has authored some of the most influential papers. He has written one book – Between Probability and Certainty (Oxford University Press, 2016) – and around 40 papers in leading journals including Mind, Noûs, Philosophical Psychology and the International Journal of Evidence and Proof. Smith has been lead or co-investigator on three major research projects funded by the AHRC – Varieties of Risk (2020 - 2023), The Whole Truth (2016 - 2017) and Justification and Probability (2014 - 2015). In addition, he was a member of the Basic Knowledge project at the University of St Andrews (2009 - 2012) the Knowledge Beyond Natural Science project at the University of Stirling (2017 - 2020) and the Diaphora project at the University of Barcelona (2017 - 2019). He was a founding member of the British Society for the Theory of Knowledge. Smith’s current research projects involve the psychology and epistemology of risk judgments, the ethics of risk imposition and the role of algorithms in the law. For more on Professor Smith’s work, see here https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/martin-smith
LCKD Research Contribution: Smith’s expertise in the epistemology (both formal and mainstream) of justified belief and risk supports InfoLab’s ranking of knowledge threats and ReasoningLab’s knowledge resistance analysis.
Professor Shannon Vallor,
University of Edinburgh
Professor Shannon Vallor is the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, where she directs the Centre for Technomoral Futures. Recently honoured as among the world’s top future directed thinkers by Vox's Future Perfect 50 list for 2024, her research explores how AI, robotics, and data science reshape human character: our habits, virtues and capabilities. Professor Vallor regularly advises lawmakers, regulators, policymakers and industry on the ethical design and use of AI, and she is a former Visiting Researcher and AI Ethicist at Google. She is a standing member of Stanford University’s One Hundred Year Study of Artificial Intelligence, and a member of Ernst and Young’s Global AI Advisory Council. Prof. Vallor co-directs the UK-wide BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divides) programme, funded by AHRC, and leads work on Responsibility within the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems programme, funded by the EPSRC. She is a former President of the Society for Philosophy of Technology and the recipient of the 2015 World Technology Award in Ethics and of the 2022 Covey Award from the International Association of Computing and Philosophy. In addition to her many published articles and having edited the Oxford Handbook in the Philosophy of Technology, she is the author of two monographs: Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting (Oxford University Press 2016), and The AI Mirror: Reclaiming Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking (Oxford University Press 2024). For more on Professor Vallor’s work, see here https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/shannon-vallor
LCKD Research Contribution: Vallor’s expertise in AI and data ethics will support InfoLab’s development of models of ethical and legal responsibility for AI and MediaLab’s investigation of media consumer behaviours.
Professor Maria Wimber,
University of Glasgow
Professor Maria Wimber is Professor in Cognitive Neuroimaging in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow, where she serves as Director of the MemoryLab cross-college initiative. Her research investigates the adaptive and reconstructive nature of human memory, focusing on how the brain transforms experiences into durable memories and how these memories change over time. Her group develops novel paradigms and cutting-edge tools to identify memory traces in human brain activity, combining cognitive-behavioural approaches with advanced neuroimaging techniques and machine learning. Her work has secured several prestigious grants, including a major ERC Grant. She publishes in leading journals including Nature Neuroscience, Nature Communications, and Trends in Cognitive Sciences, with her findings regularly featured in mainstream media outlets like The Guardian and New York Times. Her contributions to memory science earned her membership in the Memory Disorders Research Society. Wimber is an accomplished mentor, having supervised several postdoctoral researchers and PhD students, with all graduates securing positions at prestigious research institutions. As departmental lead for research culture, she actively mentors early-career academics through Glasgow's Early Career Development Programme and Catalyst mentoring programme. For more about Professor Wimber’s work, see here https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/psychologyneuroscience/staff/mariawimber/
LCKD Research Contribution: Wimber’s expertise in adaptive memory processes and cognitive biases will support ReasoningLab’s inquiry into conditions that make memory susceptible to misleading evidence and bias.