THE BRAINS TRUST

Dr. Giles Gasper

Giles Gasper is Reader in High Medieval History at Durham University. He specializes in the intellectual history of the high middle ages (11th-13th centuries), particularly in the development of theology. He also has interests in Patristic and early medieval thought, and in the history of science. He is principal investigator on the inter-disciplinary Ordered Universe project to edit, translate and contextualise the scientific works of Robert Grosseteste (c.1170-1253), working with an international team of scientists, educationalists and medievalists.

Professor Richard Bower, BA Physics, PhD

Professor Hannah Smithson

Dr Sigbjørn Sønnesyn

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (High Medieval History)
University of Durham

Prof Mark McCaughrean

Mark McCaughrean is the Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency. He is also responsible for communicating results from ESA’s astronomy, heliophysics, planetary, exploration, and fundamental physics missions to the scientific community and wider general public. Following a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, he worked at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, followed by astronomical institutes in Tucson, Heidelberg, Bonn, and Potsdam, and taught as a professor of astrophysics at the University of Exeter before joining ESA in 2009. His personal scientific research involves observational studies of the formation of stars and their planetary systems, and he is also an Interdisciplinary Scientist for the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is Associate Professor of Medieval History and Literature at Durham University. Much of her work has focused on the history, cultures, languages and literatures of the medieval north. In her book, Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas she explored tales of far-travelling Norse men and women, following in their footsteps to visit locations including Greenland, Arctic Scandinavia, Orkney and Turkey. Beyond the Viking Age, she has particular interests in geographical and landscape studies, as well as arctic history. She is also a radio broadcaster, and has presented programmes for BBC Radio 4 including ‘Costing the Earth’ and ‘Open Country’. For BBC Radio 3 she has presented programmes including ‘Free Thinking’, ‘The Essay’ and several ‘Sunday Feature’ documentaries such as ‘Supernatural North’, ‘Apocalypse How’, ‘True Norse’ and ‘The Summer Forest’.