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ABOUT US

Scientists for Labour is a Socialist Society affiliated to the Labour Party. It is open to supporters of the Labour Party interested or involved in UK science and technology.

Since its establishment in 1994, SfL has become a strong political voice for science. We aim to improve the understanding of science within the Labour Party and nationally. We are also involved in advising the parliamentary Labour Party on science policy issues, including metascience, artificial intelligence, the life sciences and net-zero.

We're always interested in hearing from potential collaborators in academia, politics, civil society and industry - please email us at sflabour [at] gmail.com.

Our constitution and our community standards.

OUR PATRONS

Ben Fernando

Chair

Sir Paul Nurse FRS

Paul Nurse is an English geneticist, former President of the Royal Society and Chief Executive and Director of the Francis Crick Institute. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He has been a member of the Labour Party for nearly 40 years.

Lord David Sainsbury

David Sainsbury is a businessman, philanthropist and former Minister for Science and Innovation from 1998-2006. In 2008, Sainsbury was elected as an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society and in 2011 was elected Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

Dr Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown is a British politician who was Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010, and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007. He has been a consistent supporter of science and engineering throughout his career.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Izzy Creed

Izzy Creed

Chair

Izzy is currently a Theoretical Chemistry PhD student at the University of Oxford, studying a Quantum Mechanical problem, known as Many-Body localisation. She is also a stipendiary lecturer of physical chemistry at Exeter College, Oxford. Izzy previously attended Oxford University both for her undergraduate degree (MChem, 2018) and masters degree (MSci, 2019). Izzy's main political interests are in Health, Science and Technology, and Education.

Paul Henry

Paul Henry

Vice Chair Membership

Paul is a Financial Technology Consultant specialising in data science. Prior to beginning his career in financial services, he completed a PhD at the University of Nottingham in sustainable chemistry. His area of research was using spectroscopy and machine learning to monitor biotechnological processes. His main political interests include environmental sustainability, particularly its social and economic impacts.

Avesta Afshari-Mehr

Avesta Afshari-Mehr

Secretary & Webmaster

Avesta is an experimental physicist and ecologist with further specialisations in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning engineering as well as contemporary German history. He also briefly pursued research in East German sociology at the University of Bonn in 2022. He joined the Labour Party in July 2019 and Scientists for Labour in 2020, and also serves as the Youth Officer for the Ealing
Central and Acton Constituency Labour Party, and Chair for his local branch. He also stood as a candidate in the 2022 council elections.

Sanjush Dalmia

Sanjush Dalmia

Sanjush Dalmia is former Policy Advisor to Labour's Shadow Minister for Science, Research and Innovation.

Sanjush holds an MRes which focused on biological ageing, and is currently completing his medical training at the University of Leeds. Sanjush has published 5 medical research papers, including a first-author Cochrane review. Sanjush's interests lie in metascience, the life sciences, and the intersection of technology and geopolitics.

Noah Wescombe

Noah Wescombe

Noah Wescombe is an expert in climate resilience and food system risks. A graduate of the Universities of Oxford and Bristol with an economics and water science background, he currently works as a Climate Resilience Specialist at Cadlas, a technical advisory practice working with financial institutions on climate adaptation. Noah is also Head of Policy at the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED), an international non-profit focused on food system resilience. A long-term Labour Party member, he is passionate about improving institutional decision-making, and is a diehard supporter of open source science. Noah is a member of Labour First, and has previously worked with Young Fabians and the APPGFG.

Conor Cooper

Conor Cooper

Vice Chair Policy

Conor studied biological sciences at the University of Oxford and holds an Msc (by research) in
biology from the University of York. He currently works as a biology tutor. Conor has been a
member of the Labour Party since 2015 and joined SfL during the COVID-19 pandemic to help with
reporting. Conor's main area of political interest is environmental protection, with a focus on
conservation and climate mitigation, but he is also interested in education and welfare policy.

Daniel Villar

Daniel Villar

Treasurer

Daniel is a behavioural ecologist and conservation biologist studying for a DPhil in Biology at the University of
Oxford. He completed a BA in Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford in 2019 and a MSc(Res) in
Ecology, Evolution, and Animal Behaviour at the University of St. Andrews in 2020. Daniel has been a member
of the Labour Party since 2017, and of the UCU since 2019. His research focuses on how humans interact
with the environment in Lake Titicaca, influencing animal behaviour and the wider ecology of the Andes.
Daniel’s political interests include environmental policy both domestically and abroad, immigration policy, and
the role that science can have to bridge national divides.

Juna Sathian

Juna Sathian

Membership Secretary

Juna is a Assistant Professor in Physics at Northumbria University Newcastle, with research interests in Laser and
Maser technology. Before that, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Imperial College London and had
a PhD from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia in Nonlinear Optics and Laser Physics. Apart
from her research and teaching, she is active in outreach and career talks in STEM, influencing the futures of younger generations. She currently Chairs the SfL Newcastle Central Branch and the Blakelaw Branch Labour
Party and serves as a Community Councillor. She has been recently elected as a Newcastle City Councillor in
the May 2022 local elections.

Alex Greer

Alex Greer

Alex is studying for a PhD in Chemistry at Durham University, researching new methods for scaled
synthesis of nucleoside 5’-triphosphates and their application in gene synthesis. He previously studied
Chemistry (MChem, 2022) at Durham, where he completed a master’s project in chemical biology. Originally
from Northumberland, Alex has been a member of the Labour Party since 2015, and a member of Scientists for
Labour since 2020. His main political interests are infrastructure, drug reform, justice, and the long-term future.

Devon McMenam

Devon McMenam

Devon studied physics and chemistry at Durham University, completing his MSci project in Density Functional Theory; he currently works at an Insurtech company. Devon joined the Labour Party in 2021 and is a member of Hackney South and Shoreditch CLP and the United Tech and Allied Workers branch of the CWU.

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