The main purpose of the Advisory Board (AB) is to provide independent advice on the strategic direction and focus of PSDI or on related issues where the Management Board may desire additional input. This encompasses helping to provide advice on the strategic direction of PSDI and key areas for research and development initiatives for the project. This may include providing independent advice on the evaluation of research proposals.
The PSDI Advisory Board is currently chaired by Professor Richard Hartshorn (University of Canterbury). Members appointed by the Management Board are nationally and internationally recognised experts in the area, nominees from funding bodies, and nominees from the user group. The board will meet as required, but at least two times per year, with meetings held in a hybrid format.
Advisory Board Members
Prof Richard Hartshorn, University of Canterbury NZ
Richard Hartshorn is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. He has been Secretary General of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) 2016-23, and has just been elected Vice President of CODATA. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry.
As Secretary General, Professor Hartshorn oversaw the IUPAC Secretariat and IUPAC scientific activities of the Union. He has held leadership roles in CODATA (https://www.codata.org/) since 2018, and has been a member of the International Chemical Identifier (InChI) Trust Board (https://www.inchi-trust.org/) since 2013.
Professor Hartshorn’s research interests are the coordination chemistry of dinuclear and heterodinuclear systems. He has a long-standing interest in nomenclature and new ways of systematically naming and representing chemical compounds.
Prof Sonja Herres-Pawlis, RWTH Aachen
Sonja leads the Chair of Bioinorganic Chemistry at RWTH Aachen University since 2015. Her group focusses on new catalysts for biomimetic oxygen and electron transfer reactions, polymerisation and depolymerisation of bioplastics, machine learning on catalyst discovery FAIR data in chemistry as well as the work in the InChI as molecular representation.
Prof Duncan Hand, Heriot-Watt University
Duncan is Professor of Applied Photonics. His passion for photonics began during his Physics degree at the University of St Andrews in the 1980s and continued through a PhD in optical fibres at the University of Southampton before moving to Heriot-Watt in 1991. Photonics is an enabling technology that he has applied to a diverse range of applications, with the aerospace and defence industry; ship building and ship engine manufacturing; carbon capture and storage; medical device manufacturers; plant biology; and medical practitioners including surgeons. A current key focus is on manufacturing of medical devices, including as Director of the £3.6M Medical Device Manufacturing Centre (MDMC), whilst maintaining research activities focused on other important engineering sectors such as defence. Duncan collaborates extensively with industry partners.
Sophie Janacek, UKRI
Sophie is Head of the Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) Programme at UK Research and Innovation, the largest public funder of research in the UK. Prior to her current role, she led the Research Management Office at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory – European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), and before this was Project Manager – Science at the Earlham Institute. She originally trained as a life scientist and has a degree in Evolutionary Biology (University of Nottingham) and a PhD in Plant Sciences (University of Cambridge).
Thomas Hase, University of Warwick
Thomas has been working at Warwick Physics since 2006 in condensed matter physics focusing on X-ray scattering and spectroscopy from a broad range of material systems. His research uses central facilities such as the ESRF and Diamond. He is the Warwick director of the EPSRC funded XMaS National Facility for Materials Science at the ESRF and has just finished chairing the Diamond Science Advisory Committee. He works with BSI and ISO (TC 201) in developing standards for surface chemical analysis.
Kay Yeung, UKRI – EPSRC
Kay is a Senior Portfolio Manager in the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Kay works in the Research Infrastructure team and leads on the national research facilities portfolio and data infrastructure priority.
Daniel Smith, UKRI – EPSRC
Danny has worked for UKRI for 12 years, and is currently the Head of Physical Sciences at EPSRC. Prior to this he was the Head of Business Engagement for EPSRC and was responsible for the Prosperity Partnership portfolio which scaled into a £300M joint industry-academia investment portfolio. He has spent time in various other themes across EPSRC, NERC and also worked in BIS (Department for Business Innovation and skills) where he was responsible for Quantum Technology and Robotics policy.
Andrew Leach, LifeArc
Felix Oppong, Unilever
We also extend our sincere thanks to John R Helliwell, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, University of Manchester who previously chaired the PSDI Advisory board.