David Wilkinson Project Director
David is a professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University and has PhDs in astrophysics and systematic theology.
He is a regular contributor to Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’ and has lectured and written widely on the relationship between science and religion.
His most recent book, 'God, Stephen Hawking and the Multiverse: What Hawking Said and Why it Matters' (SPCK, 2020) is widely available.
Dr Malcolm Brown Director of Faith and Public Life at the Church of England
The Revd Dr Malcolm Brown leads the team which engages at national level with Parliament, government and policy makers and with other faiths and beliefs, and which resources dioceses and parishes in mission and social engagement.
Malcolm has been a parish priest, industrial missioner, and Director of the William Temple Foundation. He has taught ethics and practical theology in several universities, and was Principal of the Eastern Region Ministry Course. His publications include Tensions in Christian Ethics [SPCK, 2010] and Anglican Social Theology (ed.)
Richard Cheetham Co-Director for Global Engagement
The Rt Revd Dr Richard Cheetham was Bishop of Kingston from 2002-22. He studied Physics and Philosophy at Oxford before teaching Physics for five years. He is Whitelands Professorial Fellow in Christian Theology and Contemporary Issues at the University of Roehampton and Honorary Research Fellow at King’s College, London.
Bishop Richard’s interest in truth claims and the major issues of the 21st century includes the relationship between religion and science, including developing holistic approaches to schools’ science teaching; living well together among different religious and secular world views; the environment; and climate change.
After gaining her PhD from Cambridge on X-rays from black holes, Prof Done went to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center on an NRC fellowship for two years, where a highlight was being part of ground control flying an X-ray telescope in the payload bay of the space shuttle! She returned to the UK on a junior (2 year) and then senior (5 year) research fellowship from the UK research council before getting tenure at the University of Durham in 2000. She was promoted to full professor in 2006, becoming one of the first women to hold this post. She is also a non-stipendiary Visiting Professor at the Kavli Institute for Physics and Mathematics of the Universe of the University of Tokyo, having spent the academic year 2016/2017 in Tokyo on a sabbatical working with the Japanese Space Agency.
She is one of only two European scientists supported by the European Space Agency to be part of XRISM, the next Japanese/US X-ray telescope. She chairs one of the Science Working Groups for this mission as well being a member of the Science Management Office which advises the mission Principal Investigator. She also chairs of one of the Science Working Groups for the Athena X-ray satellite (due for launch by the European Space Agency in 2030) and has served as overall chair (Chair of chairs) of the NASA Chandra time allocation committee in 2016. She was awarded the Royal Astronomical Society George Darwin Lectureship for a distinguished and eloquent speaker in 2019 on Black Holes, Einstein's Gravity and Rocket Science and was invited on the Stephen Murray Distinguished Visitor Program, Harvard, USA in 2018. She is regularly invited to present her work in seminars and conference talks, both nationally and internationally, such as ‘The X-ray Universe 2017’, conference in Rome. This is the major showcase for results from ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite with over 350 participants.
She often gives talks for local Astronomical Societies, but more unusual public talks are her 2014 TEDx Astrophysics for Dummies with over 47,000x views on YouTube, a broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2017 for a Lent talk on science and faith, being keynote speaker at an event at the Japanese Embassy in London to mark 150 years of UK-Japan collaborations in 2015, in pleasing symmetry with being a speaker at a similar event at the UK embassy in Tokyo in 2016.
Lucas specializes in fostering dialogue around science, religion, and reality. He has a PhD in evolutionary biology from Harvard and specializes in the various meanings of “life.” His past work includes research on astrobiology and historical life concepts. A priest in the Episcopal Church (USA), he has also worked as a college chaplain, a NASA contractor, and a martial arts teacher. His books include Thinking Fair: Rules for Reason in Science and Religion, Life Concepts from Aristotle to Darwin, and The End of Final Causes in Biology.
Steve is Director of Formation and Mixed-mode Training at Cranmer Hall, appointed summer 2019. He is currently completing his PhD on ‘Ethical Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development’ with Lambeth Palace Research Degrees. Steve has also been serving as an Associate Minister and Curate in the Durham North Team of Churches. Before moving to Durham, Steve was involved in developing the Bujumbura Christian University in Burundi, a new University in his home country.
Steve obtained his Masters in Global Issues in Contemporary Mission, and his undergraduate in Applied Theology, at Redcliffe College, University of Gloucestershire. Previously, Steve trained in Telecommunications Engineering in Nairobi, Kenya. Steve has worked in Christian Development as well as in Business Consultancy work in East Africa where he experienced first-hand the transformative power of God’s Word within the Marketplace.
Steve is married to Christine and they have two children. He is interested in the intersections of ‘seemingly’ competing spaces; sacred vs secular, physical vs spiritual, local vs global, and theory vs practice. He enjoys coffee, spending time with family and friends, and seeing people flourish into their God given full potential in all aspects of life, including in Church, business and communities.
Kathryn has extensive professional experience in religious broadcasting and publishing, and a research interest in Church of England bioethics-related public discourse.
Based in the Church of England’s Faith and Public Life team at the Archbishops’ Council, she helps inform and resource engagement with science across the Church of England public policy team and parliamentary unit, the wider National Church Institutions, and Church of England bishops in the House of Lords. She leads research into Church public policy related discourse in AI Ethics and other current science-related policy matters. She also contributes to strategic communications across the ECLAS project.
Amanda Rees is a historian of science based at York University’s Department of Sociology. She specialises in the history of field sciences, especially ethology and ecology, in the history of human-animal relationships, and in the history of future. She has spent the past five years researching the way that different narratives of science have been used to create different versions of the human future, and on the crucial role that religion has played in both the history of science and science fiction.
Currently, she edits the British Journal for the History of Science, and is one of the co-editors of History of the Human Sciences. Her latest book is 'Human', co-written with Charlotte Sleigh and published by Reaktion Books in 2020.