1st Cambridge Risk Research Symposium

Kris is a neuroscientist, science communicator and science-policy co-production expert; bringing insights from neuroscience and psychology to the domain of climate change.

Kris specialises in how people become entrenched in their beliefs, how this leads to polarisation in society, and how to overcome this. He co-produced Right Between Your Ears – an award-winning documentary exploring how people become entrenched in their views, and co-created The Justice Syndicate, a participatory play about how we disagree.

At the CAU, Kris is responsible for the neuroscientific underpinning of the programme of interventions provided. Kris works closely with clients providing unique expertise on how the human brain responds to climate change.

Fernanda is a Research Associate in systemic risks at the Centre for Risk Studies. She is a Mexican engineer focused on the application of technology for development and social innovation. Previously, Fernanda worked on gene and cellular therapies for several years and then transitioned to consulting in technology innovation, disaster risk management (DRM) and emergency preparedness and response (EP&R). Fernanda is also a passionate traditional fencer and martial artist, looking forward to this new opportunity to work on systemic risks at the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies.

Dr Timothy Less runs the study group in geopolitical risk analysis at the Centre for Geopolitics. He also works as a consultant for the private sector with a specialisation in the politics of central and eastern Europe about which he writes and comments for the media.

Previously, he worked as an analyst, diplomat, and policymaker at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he led the Countries at Risk of Instability project and ran the British Embassy Office in Banja Luka and the EU Institutions department. He also taught Eastern European Politics at the University of Kent.

Tim holds an MA in Eastern European Studies from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, an MSt in International Relations, and a PhD in modern history from the University of Cambridge. His recent publications include the ‘City Risk Index 2022’ (co-author, Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies, January 2023); ‘The New Warsaw Pact’ (Engelsberg Ideas, May 2023); and ‘What If? Ten Geopolitical Risks to Keep You Awake at Night’ (GIRO conference paper, November 2023).

Dr Trevor Maynard is the Director of Systemic Risk at the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies located at the Judge Business School.

He qualified as an actuary and holds a PhD in Statistics from the LSE and a Masters in Pure Mathematics from the University of Warwick.

His work has involved risk modelling in various guises from Pensions and Life Assurance to general insurance, working for firms such as Lloyd’s of London and Mercer. Whilst at Lloyd’s his team produced risk reports on subjects including Pandemics, Climate Change, Deep tail Marine disasters, Nano Technology, Geopolitics, AI, Robotics and IoT working with many think tanks, universities and specialist risk modelling firms.

Additionally he advises insurtech firms on risk and data science.

Kevin is a researcher at the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies. His research looks at climate disaster risk and recovery, systemic economic and climate risk, and global trends, networks, and linkages in the design and analysis of risk taxonomies and scenarios. He has worked in research related to climate financial risk, including input/output analysis of climate-economy modelling, climate scenario modelling and stress testing, carbon accounting, energy systems, and transition and fiscal policy. He has been a researcher at Oxford University’s School of Geography, Department of Economics, and the Said Business School, where he has worked on topics related to international trade, competition, infrastructure, international development, inequality, and long-run growth. He has been a lecturer at Oxford University and the University of Buckingham. He holds a PhD and MSc from Oxford University, and a BA from Northwestern University.

Taha Tariq is the Geopolitical Research Lead for the Centre for Risk Studies. He received his MSc in International Relations with a Distinction from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He has had prior experience in using open-source intelligence analysis to provide political risk advisory services.

Taha’s research spans contemporary issues concerning geopolitics, defence, and security. Within this cluster, Taha has further researched on international strategic conflict, military modernisation programs, public-private armament partnerships, weapons of mass destruction, ideological terrorism, domestic political polarisation, comparative national institution-building, state failure, geoeconomics, and outer space politics.

Professor Daniel Ralph is a Founder and Academic Director of the Centre for Risk Studies, Professor of Operations Research at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, and a Fellow of Churchill College. Daniel’s research interests include identification and management of systemic risk, risk aversion in investment, economic equilibria models and optimisation methods. Management stress test, via selection and construction of catastrophe scenarios, is one focus of his work in the Centre for Risk Studies. Another is the role and expression of risk management within organisations. Daniel engages across scientific and social science academia, a variety of commercial and industrial sectors, and government policy making. He was Editor-in-Chief of Mathematical Programming (Series B) from 2007-2013.