Dr Tom Crawford is a mathematician at the University of Oxford AND the University of Cambridge, and also a massive self-confessed Pokemon fan! Listen in to our chat with Tom at the New Scientist Live event where we talked about how his love for maths came to be, what its like being a content creator within academia and, most importantly, what is his favourite Pokemon!

Prof David Stainforth is a climate scientist at the London School of Economics. Initially training as a physicist by trade, David spent many years researching at Oxford University and was one of the founders of climateprediction.net, a groundbreaking volunteer-based computing climate modelling project at the University of Oxford. David recently published the book "Predicting Our Climate Future". The book explores the current landscape of climate science, and why the general population should trust some of its conclusions and absolutely distrust others. Through our discussion, David provides his takes on the current climate debate and what the approach should be going forward in order to make a real difference at the individual level.

Dr Ivan Gee is a researcher in public health at Liverpool John Moores University. Ivan's work focused on tobacco and nicotine addiction and the use of vaping in younger generations in 2023. The lads discuss if vapes are safe, if they are beneficial in some scenarios and what the science tells us about the long-term health impacts. Ivan also discusses his role in the 2007 smoke-free legislation and the recent new-generation legislation introduced in 2023.

Dr Áine MacDermott is BACK!. Áine is an expert in Cyber Security and the IoT at Liverpool John Moores University. Áine teaches on both the Computer Forensics and Computer Security programmes in the School of Computer Science and Mathematics. Áine's past research has delved into areas such as online disappearing messages on applications such as WhatsApp, online security surrounding the Internet of Things and creating machine learning applications to identify online trolling and hate speech. Áine's recent work focuses on new deep fake phenomena and uses machine learning techniques to develop indicators to identify them.

Chris is a professor of sea-level science at the University of Liverpool. He is an Adjunct Fellow at the National Oceanography Centre where Chris works closely with the Sea Level Group, the Marine Physics and Ocean Climate Group and the Marine Systems Modelling groups. Chris's research focuses on the relationship between ocean dynamics, sea level, ocean bottom pressure, and geodesy. 

Steven is a Professor of Astrophysics at the Astrophysics Research Institute (ARI) and head of the ARI’s Astro-Ecology group. Stevens's work includes how the Universe evolves over cosmic time to produce the spectacular variety of stars, planets and life we see today. His work has established an understanding of how clouds of gas in space collapse to form star systems and how changes in these gas clouds might alter how stars, planets, and life may evolve. Steven's interests also go beyond what lies in the great beyond; he has a keen interest in applying astronomical techniques to tackle problems a little closer to home, such as the conservation of endangered species, helping search and rescue teams identify the optimal way to find people, or trying to stop peat fires that are a significant contributor to climate change. As well as discussing Stevens's work, the lads delve into the empty space inbetween, getting his take on what alien life might look like and why the general public won't get excited about microbial life getting discovered.

Link to Conservation AI:

https://www.conservationai.co.uk/

Dr Ivan Olier-Caparroso is a reader in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. Ivan's work included the development of algorithms for intelligent systems with a focus on casual AI, Digital twins and the complex modelling of large-scale, highly structured databases. Ivan's work has numerous applications within cardiovascular science, drug development, astrophysics and healthcare. Ivan and the lads delve into his upbringing in Columbia, his current work around digital twin creation for an improved healthcare system, and his thoughts on where AI is heading in the next 10-15 years. As usual, we enter the empty space inbetween discussing his time working as a sausage... Ivan's ideas around self-organising maps and society and the one thing he must know before he dies!