2026 Conference Staff and Trustees
Meet the Staff and Trustees attending the 2026 Daphne Jackson Trust Conference
The Daphne Jackson Trust runs with a small dedicated team of staff. We try to practice what we preach: most of us work part-time and flexibly. We see this as an important part of how we operate as we strive for a better working environment for everyone.
We couldn’t run without our Trustees who generously share their time, skills and experience with us. We are so pleased that many of them are able to attend this year.
The conference gives us all a fantastic opportunity to meet our fellows. When you see us, come and have a chat.
Trust staff attending the 2026 Conference
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Dr Katie Perry
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Dr Helen Marsh
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Dr Sally Bolton
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Dr Leslie Cooles
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Dr Julie Dallison
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Dr Gillian Halket
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Candy Hassall
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Elaine Hunt
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Morwenna Jones
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Tim Julier
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Fiona Karimjee
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Farhat Mahmood
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Dr Yalini Nathan
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Deirdre McMahon
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Francesca Scott
Trustees attending the 2026 conference
Professor Tom Welton OBE FRSC FCGI – Chair of Trustees
Organisation
Imperial College London
Job Title
Chair of Trustees, Emeritus Professor of Sustainable Chemistry
About
Tom is Emeritus Professor of Sustainable Chemistry at Imperial College London. He served as Head of the Department of Chemistry from 2007 to 2014 and as Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences from 2015 to 2019. He is a Fellow and previous President of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Tom’s research focuses on sustainable chemistry, with particular focus on ionic liquids and solvent effects on chemical reactions. He is the author of over 140 research papers.
The promotion of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion has always been critically important to Tom. Under his tenureship as Head of Department, Chemistry at Imperial won its first Athena SWAN Gold award. He co-founded the Irene Juliot-Curie conference, which is dedicated to addressing barriers to career progression and supporting diversity in the chemical sciences.
Tom is a L’Oréal-UNESCO Male Champion for Women in Science, and member of the EDI advisory boards of both UKRI and Elsevier.
Dr Jo Briggs
Organisation
School of Digital Arts (SODA), Manchester Metropolitan University
Job Title
Reader, User Experience
About
Jo is an experienced interdisciplinary arts and humanities researcher currently based at the School of Digital Arts (SODA), Manchester Metropolitan University. She has more than thirty years’ teaching and research experience in art and design subject areas. Jo is a fine art graduate from Chelsea School of Art, who later studied computer science at Trinity College, Dublin. Several years later, while in her forties, she resigned from her academic post to undertake an AHRC Collaborative PhD, just as doctoral study became more available for creative arts subjects. Jo went on to gain invaluable post-doctoral experience in a large Human Computer Interaction lab, experience that was vital in enabling her to apply her unique combination of prior experience and research skills to novel interdisciplinary inquiry. Her research since then has been supported by AHRC, ESRC and EPSRC. Current concerns include new and emerging digital practices such as ‘extended reality’, researched through the lens of user experience.
With her multi-disciplinary educational background and ‘non-traditional’ route into research, Jo is a strong advocate for lifelong learning and alternative routes into research careers.
Dr Jane Gate MBE
Organisation
AIRTO – the Association of Innovation, Research and Technology Organisations
Job Title
Executive Director
About
Jane is the Executive Director of AIRTO – the Association of Innovation, Research and Technology Organisations – fulfilling this role at the National Physical Laboratory since 2011, and since 2021, at the Net Zero Technology Centre.
Jane is a life science graduate from the University of Reading, with a PhD in animal physiology. She began her working life at the Institute for Animal Health, and held a range of management and leadership roles at King’s College London, within the health schools and the university’s research commercialisation division, King’s Business Ltd., where she was Director of Business Development.
With three grown-up sons, Jane knows the joys and challenges of balancing a career in science and innovation with caring responsibilities. Her strengths lie in her ability to build partnerships with others, and in her logical and analytical approach to decision-making. She is passionate about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the science and innovation arena. Coming from a working-class background, and being the first from her family to go to university, Jane values the potential of education and STEM career opportunities to tackle social inequalities.
Dr Ruth Gilligan
Organisation
Advance HE
Job Title
Assistant Director for UK Equality Charters
About
Ruth is Assistant Director for UK Equality Charters at Advance HE. She is responsible for the strategic leadership of the Athena Swan Charter for gender equality and the Race Equality Charter which operate in the UK and internationally. These impactful equality frameworks help organisations to identify and address their equality issues, with progress recognised with highly-esteemed Bronze, Silver and Gold awards.
During her time working with the Equality Charters, she has been responsible for introducing the Athena Swan Charter to the Republic of Ireland (the first application of the Charter outside of the UK), the expansion of the Charter to all academic disciplines and professional areas, and for the recent reviews and development of both UK Charters.
Ruth’s academic background is in organic chemistry, and after completing her PhD at the University of Cambridge, she worked at Science Foundation Ireland, the largest funder of competitive research in Ireland in the Policy and Pre-Award Divisions. Drawing on her background in research and professional expertise, Ruth acts as an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion adviser nationally and internationally.
Dr Alex Jones FRSC
Organisation
National Physical Laboratory (NPL)
Role
Principal Scientist in Biometrology
About
Alex is Principal Scientist in Biometrology at the National Physical Laboratory and Honorary Professor in Biological Physics at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCL. His research interests focus on sensory biology, investigating how biomolecules respond to light and magnetic fields and using this to inform the development of new measurement methods, including time-resolved optical spectroscopy, non-linear imaging, optogenetics and quantum technologies.
Alex is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Trustee and Scientific Advisor to the Occupational and Environment Health Charity, The Colt Foundation. He was appointed to the Awards Assessment Panel (AAP) of the Daphne Jackson Trust in 2019 and now Chairs AAP sub-panel for Engineering and the Physical Sciences.
Dr Kerstin Kinkelin
Organisation
Kidney Research UK
Role
Head of Strategic Research Development
About
Kerstin is Head of Strategic Research Development at Kidney Research UK, where she leads the development and delivery of their research strategy.A biochemist by training and with research experience at Max Planck Institutes (Germany) and the Francis Crick Institute (UK), Kerstin has since moved into research management.
Through her roles at the Royal Society, Blood Cancer UK and the University of Bristol, she has built expertise in researcher development as well as research funding and strategy development.
Professor Lu-Yun Lian
Organisation
Invesimol
Role
Director
About
Lu-Yun is an internationally renowned structural biologist and biochemist. Her research focuses on biophysical studies of proteins involved in mitochondrial function and neurological diseases. She was, until November 2021, Professor of Structural Biology and Director of the NMR Centre at the University of Liverpool. She is now Director of Invesimol, an independent scientific consultancy. She is currently an Honorary Professor at the Universities of Manchester, Liverpool and East Anglia.
Her main management contributions at the University of Liverpool centred on early career researchers, providing a leadership role in championing programmes focussed on career progression. She has also held senior positions at the Universities of Manchester and Leicester, after completing a fellowship at the University of Oxford.
Lu-Yun is a member of the Governing Council of the University of East Anglia. She currently chairs the Biological and Medical Sciences Panel of the International Science Partnership Fund programme of the British Council.
Her hobbies include boating exploration of inshore waters, orchid growing and cultural anthropology.
Dr Kotryna Temcinaite
Organisation
Breast Cancer Now
Role
Senior Research and Impact Communications Lead
About
Kotryna is Senior Research and Impact Communications Lead at the research and care charity Breast Cancer Now. Leading a team of science communicators, she specialises in translating complex scientific information to non-specialist audiences across PR, digital and fundraising communications. Over the years working in medical research charities, she has been involved in a broad range of projects, from public engagement with science and communication training for researchers, to attracting high-level donations to medical research.
Kotryna moved from Lithuania to the UK because of the excellent quality of its higher education and its global position in research. She studied biochemistry at the University of St Andrews and subsequently completed a PhD in molecular biology at the Francis Crick Institute, awarded by University College London.
Professor Kostas Tokatlidis RSE FRSC FRSB
Organisation
School of Molecular Biosciences University of Glasgow
Role
Head of the Mitochondrial Biology Laboratory, Cathcart Chair and Director of Research
About
Kostas is the Head of the Mitochondrial Biology Laboratory, Cathcart Chair and Director of Research in the School of Molecular Biosciences University of Glasgow. He is also the Lead of the Future theme Fundamentals of Life of the College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences. His research focuses on mitochondria biogenesis and function and how these underpin cell physiology and human disease. The contributions of his team include the discovery of several protein import, folding and assembly pathways in mitochondria. He graduated Cum Laude from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, was awarded his PhD from Delaware University and Pasteur Institute (Fulbright/Marie-Curie fellow), then moved to the Biozentrum, Basel (HFSP/EMBO/Roche fellow). He became a Professor in 2011 and held previous posts in the Universities of Manchester (Lister fellow), Crete and Glasgow. He was recruited to Glasgow as a Royal Society Wolfson research fellow and the Cathcart Chair of Biochemistry in 2013.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Royal Society of Biology, an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) and the Academia Europaea. He has also led several outreach and public and patient engagement activities with partners including the Glasgow School of Art, MyMItoMission, the Lily Foundation, The Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Biochemical Society.