Will Allen joins the UK Young Academy

DPIR is delighted to announce that Postdoctoral Fellow Will Allen has joined the UK Young Academy – a network of early career researchers and professionals established to help tackle local and global issues and promote meaningful change.

Will is among thirty-two emerging leaders from across the UK selected as the newest members of the UK Young Academy. The new cohort of members come from a wide range of sectors and have each made significant contributions to their field. The UK Young Academy will provide them with a forum to exchange ideas, share expertise and participate in local and global policy discussions with the aim of tackling challenges based on areas that matter to them. 

Will commented:

"I am deeply honoured to be part of this year’s cohort of UK Young Academy members. Finding ways of supporting both evidence-based and empathic conversations about pressing challenges is what motivates me to do publicly-relevant research. To do so with the collective insights of emerging leaders across subjects and sectors is both a privilege and responsibility—one that I hope to pay forward to the next generation of researchers.”

Speaking on behalf of the UK Young Academy executive group, Alistair McConnel, assistant professor in computer science at Heriot-Watt University, said: 

“We are delighted to welcome our new members to the UK Young Academy. It is such an exciting time to join the ranks. They will be able to help develop the young academy’s ambitions across areas they are passionate about, be it biodiversity loss, climate change or social inequality.

“We have just kicked off planning our major projects for the year ahead, so the new members will be able to get their teeth stuck in from the get-go. I look forward to meeting them, being inspired by their diversity of ideas, and working alongside them to create positive change for the benefit of all.”

Work programmes and initiatives led by members are already underway, with the aim to address the young academy’s strategic priorities set out in its first year. The first of the young academy’s major projects, to launch later this year, will be a programme to support researchers and professionals at risk, both in the UK and globally.

The new members took up their posts from 19 March 2024, and membership runs for five years.