Our team (in alphabetical order)
Alexandra Anikina
Co-Investigator
University of Southampton
Alexandra (Sasha) is a Senior Lecturer in Media Practices at Winchester School of Art (University of Southampton). Her work focuses on digital and algorithmic visual culture, imaginaries of technology and AI, feminist studies of science and technology, affective infrastructures and technological conditions of knowledge production, governance, labour and affect. As an artist, she works with experimental film, game engines and lecture-performances.
Sergey Astakhov
Research Fellow
University of Southampton
Sergey is a Research Fellow in Society and Technology at the University of Southampton. His research interests lie at the intersection of philosophy of science and science and technology studies, with a focus on the performative effects of academic knowledge. Outside of SOUNDSCALE, he is a researcher in the Biohybrid Futures project, where he examines how experts, policymakers, and the public perception of the emerging technology of biohybrid robots.
Mohammad Belal
Co-Investigator
National Oceanography Centre (NOC)
Belal is a Principal Investigator at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOCS), UK. At NOCS, he leads the development of the next generation of wide-area dense spatio-temporal distributed monitoring, visualisation and communications platforms, imbedded with intelligence, for use in the marine, maritime, glacial and urban environments.
Louis Cook
Communications Manager
University of Southampton
Louis is a Creative Technologies student and Music graduate at the University of Southampton, as well as a composer and producer of video game music with a focus on exploring queerness, neurodivergence and mental health in his work. He is providing external communications support for this project, including designing and maintaining the SOUNDSCALE website.
Ciaran Cummins
Associated Researcher
National Centre for Social Research (NatCen)
Ciaran is interested in how we reflect together, how we can do this better, and how this can help us respond to social challenges. He studied the philosophy of social science, focusing on deliberative democracy. This sparked a curiosity in him about the myriad worlds that connect to deliberation. Ciaran brings his interest in exploring the breadth of public participation as a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Deliberation in NatCen.
Hannah Dalgleish
Knowledge Exchange Fellow
University of Southampton
Hannah is a researcher, communicator, and engagement and knowledge exchange professional working in the academic-policy sphere. She has a PhD in astrophysics and is the person behind Astrophysics Girl, her personal blog which lists many opportunities for those interested in pursuing astronomy.
Ceri Davies
Co-Investigator
National Centre for Social Research (NatCen)
Ceri is the Director of the Centre for Deliberation at NatCen. She is interested in how the public has a voice in the decisions that shape their lives – be that through democratic means, in policy development, understanding the implications of science and technology and influencing or contributing to the questions that researchers ask. She has been working at the intersection of evidence and practice in public participation for over 15 years, through roles in community development, in social research and on not-for-profit boards.
Duncan Grimes
Associated Researcher
National Centre for Social Research (NatCen)
Duncan is interested in how the public makes sense of complex issues, and how research can help them become more involved in solutions. His work as Research Director in the Centre for Deliberation at NatCen starts with where the public are at – their key frames and narratives on a given social issue – and then uses participatory techniques to design a process that enables people to give an informed view and influence policy.
Rafael Mestre
Principal Investigator
University of Southampton
Rafael is a Lecturer at the University of Southampton and the Principal Investigator of SOUNDSCALE. His research is interdisciplinary and focuses on the responsible development and socio-technical evaluation of emerging technologies, at the interface of disciplines like computer science, physical sciences, science and technology studies and political science. He is a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute and co-director of the Centre for Democratic Futures at the University of Southampton.
Matt Ryan
Co-Investigator
University of Southampton
Matt is a Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Southampton. His research interests lie across the boundaries of political theory and comparative politics, with a strong focus on innovative research methods. He is Policy Director at the Web Science Institute. Since January 2020 he is UKRI Future Leader Fellow leading the Rebooting Democracy project.
Dianna Smith
Co-Investigator
University of Southampton
Dr Dianna Smith is a Professor in the Population, Health and Wellbeing (PHeW) group within Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Southampton. Her interests are in quantitative health geography, using geographic information systems (GIS) to visualise data collected or collated to address key social and spatial inequalities. She works across the disciplines of geography and public health with links to local government. Her substantive interests are in food, diet and related health outcomes or behaviours.
Heidi Wheatley
Project Co-ordinator
University of Southampton
Heidi is currently a final-year Environmental Science Student at the University of Southampton with a keen interest in Biodiversity and Conservation. Providing project coordination support to the sound scale project having worked on previous projects such as the Rebooting Democracy Project.