Our Team
Meet the people that make the Walker Institute what it is.
Our people come from a wide range of backgrounds and areas of expertise, but they all have one thing in common. They’re committed to using scientific research to help the people who are most at risk from the impacts of climate change.
Walker Core Team
Rosalind Cornforth
Walker Institute Director
Celia Petty
Strategic Livelihoods Lead
Pen Cabot
Business Development Director
Ted Shepherd
Grantham Professor of Climate Science
Marah McGuire
Operations Support Officer
Harley Pope
Research Fellow and Walker Academy Lead
Konstantina Pratta
Walker Academy Support Coordinator/Facilitator
Elena Saggioro
Research Fellow
Cathie Wells
Research Fellow
Research Students
Will Shields
Research Student - PhD - EITTA Programme
Fiona Spuler
Research Student
Robert Muthami
Research Student - PhD in Law - EITTA Programme
Ambassadors and Associates
Andrew Ainslie
Associate Professor - Agriculture and Development
Peter Gibbs
Chair of Board. Former BBC Weather Forecaster & Journalist
Andrew Bennett
President of the Tropical Agricultural Association
Virginia Murray
Consultant in Global Disaster Risk Reduction at Public Health England
Aondover Tarhule
Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Illinois State University
Lord Crisp
Co-Chair, All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health & Former CEO of NHS
Aida Opoku-Mensah
Former UN Economic Commission for Africa Chief of Staff to the Executive Secretary & Special Advisor on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ICT
Manuela Gonzalez-Suarez
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Vanessa Lawrence
Former Director General and CEO, Ordnance Survey, Great Britain’s national mapping agency working globally in the application of Space, Geospatial and AI
Chris Hilson
Professor of Law
Valerio Lucarini
Professor of Statistical Mechanics
Lisa Methven
Professor of Food and Nutritional Sciences
John Methven
Professor of Atmospheric Dynamics - Meteorology
Richard Nunes
Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design
Deepa Senapathi
Senior Research Fellow - Sustainable Land Management
Joy Singarayer
Professor of Palaeoclimatology - School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences, University of Reading
Stefan Thor Smith
Associate Professor in the School of Construction Management and Engineering & Research Division Lead - School of the Built Environment, University of Reading
Karen Lawrence
HR Advisor
Ashley Burke
International Partnership Manager
Emma Robinson
Research Accountant
Anne-Marie West
Finance Business Partner