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Chris Packham

Extraordinarily creative and prolific, Chris Packham has led a remarkable life. He’s gained recognition as a naturalist, television presenter, writer, photographer, conservationist, campaigner and filmmaker.

Broadcasting
Chris presents the BBC’s BAFTA award-winning long running series Springwatch and Winterwatch for which he is perhaps best known. He recently presented the multi award-winning series Inside our Autistic Minds for BBC Two and Channel 4’s Time to Break the Law.

He has also presented notable natural history series such as Earth, Nature’s Weirdest Events, World’s Weirdest Events, World’s Sneakiest Animals, Cats v Dogs, The Burrowers, Inside the Animal Mind, Operation Iceberg and Secrets of our Living Planet. He has also been a guest on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

During lockdown, he formed the free-to-view Self-Isolating Bird Club with his stepdaughter, Megan McCubbin.

Chris’ television presenting career began with the award winning ’Really Wild Show’ in 1986. He went on to present a string of other wildlife based shows including  ‘Wildshots’, ‘Wild Watch’, ‘Go Wild’, ‘X-Creatures’, ‘Postcards from the Wild’, ‘Hands on Nature’ and ‘Nature’s Calendar’.

Books
Chris’s autobiography, Fingers in the Sparkle Jar: A Memoir, received critical acclaim, reaching No 1 in The Sunday Times Bestsellers in just two weeks and was featured as a Radio 4 Book of the Week. He has also written Amazing Animal Journeys, telling the story of the annual migration of animals around the world, from butterflies to whales.

His first photography book, 100 Things That Caught My Eye, was published in 2014 – an eclectic collection of his photographs accompanied by his thoughts and insights as he captured each shot.

Campaigning
A leading campaigner, Chris has always been active and vocal about wildlife and conservation issues and injustice. He is a vociferous opponent of the badger cull and a leading campaigner in the call to ban driven grouse shooting. In September 2019 Chris organised the UK’s first march for wildlife – The People’s Walk for Wildlife, London.

Chris is an ambassador for numerous wildlife and environmental NGOs and organises his own independent campaigns and actions. He campaigns for just transitions towards positive environmental necessities – from fossil fuels to renewable energies, from industrial and intensive animal agriculture to plant-based alternatives, from chemical dependent to regenerative farming, and from declining biodiversity to nature recovery. He is a passionate and vocal vegan.

Awards
Chris has received numerous awards including the Dilys Breese British Trust for Ornithology Medal for “his outstanding work in promoting science to new audiences”, Conservation Hero of the Year at the Birders’ Choice Awards organised by Birdwatch magazine and was named Britain’s second most influential conservation heroes in The Wildlife Power List featured in BBC Wildlife magazine. He is also a recipient of The Christopher Parsons Award for Outstanding Achievement in recognition of his significant contribution to wildlife filmmaking, conservation and the public’s understanding of the environment.

He has been made an honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Southampton, his alma mater.

Chris was appointed a CBE in the 2019 New Year’s honours list for services to wildlife and nature conservation.

He lives in the New Forest with his partner Charlotte and his two poodles, Sid and Nancy. His mantras are ‘winning is not giving up’ and ‘shout above the noise’.

Megan McCubbin

Megan McCubbin is one of the nation’s leading wildlife presenters, combining her expertise as a scientist with a love of adventure and a passion for raising awareness of climate issues and biodiversity.

Megan is best known as one of the faces of BBC Two’s long-running and BAFTA award-winning series Springwatch and Winterwatch.
In 2022 she joined the presenting team of BBC One’s Animal Park, bringing a new conservation angle to the much-loved longstanding TV show. She has also presented BBC Three’s Undercover Tourist, CBBC’s Planet Defenders, Al Jazeera’s award-winning Earthrise, BBC Earth’s Amaze me and BBC Two’s Chris & Meg’s Wild Summer. Megan also hosted the BBC Proms Earth Day concert in 2022 which featured Hans Zimmer and Aurora.

Megan has presented films for ITV’s This Morning and appeared on Morning Live (BBC One), Steph’s Packed Lunch (Channel 4), BBC Bitesize and BBC Radio.
She co-presents and produces the podcast series The Frogs Bollocks with James Stevens, an entertaining and engaging way to bring a new audience to natural history.

During lockdown she co-founded the Self Isolating Bird Club YouTube series with Chris Packham. Her first book, Back To Nature, was published in 2020, co-authored with Chris. It highlights the state of nature conservation in the UK and serves as a reminder of the importance of protecting it. In 2023, Megan wrote Atlas of Endangered Species highlighting the global conservation of species balancing on the brink of extinction, and the book provides the basis for her live theatre tour.

Megan has extensive experience in scientific research, filmmaking and photography around the World on the plains of Africa, the oceans surrounding the UK, the glaciers of Antarctica and beyond.

Megan is an accomplished public speaker and has given talks at COP26, the Cornwall Ecological Summit, local theatres and schools. She has co-hosted the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards at the Natural History Museum since 2020.

Megan graduated with a BSc degree in Zoology from the University of Liverpool in 2018. Diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age, she worked hard and excelled in field work and communication. In between her studies, she spent time volunteering to aid research and charity organisations around the world. This included working as a behavioural intern in China to rehabilitate bears from the bear bile farming industry and researching the personalities and ecology of shark species at Bimini Sharklab in the Bahamas. Megan has experience and knowledge working in various scientific fields and communicating complex scientific concepts to wider audiences.

Megan is President of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and Patron of the Winchester Science Centre and Helping Rhinos. She is an Ambassador for the RSPB, WWF, the League Against Cruel Sports, Rainforest Concern, the Beaver Trust, Global Animal Welfare, the Scottish Seabird Centre, the Wild Otter Trust, Thin Green Line UK, the National Oceanography Centre and Made By Dyslexia.

Professor Tom Solomon

Tom Solomon is a doctor, world-leading researcher, and award-winning science communicator, with experience across all the major national and international television channels, as well as radio and newspaper.

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Tom has regularly appeared on BBC Breakfast and BBC Radio 4’s Today programme to provide his expert medical knowledge and insight. He also appeared on BBC One’s Question Time and two Channel 4 documentaries discussing the Pandemic.

Tom was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours of June 2021.

Tom appeared on Christmas University Challenge in 2019, as part of the team for Wadham College, Oxford, with his team making it to the final. He also featured as a key expert in the Channel 4 programme 24 Hours Inside Your Body. He presents the podcast series ‘Scouse Science’.

His other TV work has included a mild dust-up with Andrew Neil on the BBC One’s The Sunday Politics, a gripping ITV Tonight Programme, Ebola – Are We Prepared, and the four part series, My Strange Brain, for Channel Five. He has recently been on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, BBC One’s Watchdog Live and Matthew Parris’ Great Lives – where he nominated the author Roald Dahl; the programme was chosen for Pick of the Week.

Other science communication and public engagement work has included his highly acclaimed TEDx Talk Sex Drugs and Emerging Viruses, the creation of a Guinness World Record-winning “World’s Biggest Brain”, and an appearance at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, which had very positive review: “Solomon is a skilful and experienced science communicator… His delivery was… almost reminiscent of a stand-up comedian at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.”

When Tom is not communicating about medical science he is doing it. As Director of the UK’s Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging Infections at the University of Liverpool, Tom is acknowledged as a world-leading infectious disease expert. He heads an internationally acclaimed research group studying brain infections in the UK, Asia, and Africa, working to reduce the burden of these devastating diseases. Tom’s Institute tackles emerging infections, food security, antimicrobial resistance, and other major global public health challenges. He was awarded the Royal College of Physicians Moxon Medal (2014), and recently became a National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator. Tom is also a Consultant Neurologist at The Walton Neuro-Centre, and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, where he sees patients with all manner of brain conditions from Alzheimer’s to Zoonoses.

Tom originally trained in medicine at the University of Oxford, and spent years living overseas, doing medical research in Asia and America, before settling in Liverpool. In his spare time he likes to get a bit of exercise. He ran the 2010 London Marathon as the Running Mad Professor, winning a Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon dressed as a doctor.

His motto: “Science is a serious business, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have fun whilst doing it!”

Click here for a profile piece on Tom in The Guardian

Laura Waters

Laura Waters is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Analysis, managing a large research group alongside her work as a scientific communicator in chemistry and pharmaceutical science.

Laura co-presented a BBC Two Horizon programme, Hair Care Secrets. She has also appeared in two series of BBC1 Watchdog: Test House, BBC3 series Kill it, Cut It, Use It and Channel 4’s Superscrimpers.

She regularly publishes in scholarly journals and leads her group of research scientists. Her expertise covers all areas of pharmaceutical and chemical research from initial drug development through to modification of medicinal formulations.

Laura is dedicated to promoting scientific research, especially in ways that are accessible to a wider audience; including hosting events attracting thousands of members of the public, writing for national magazines and appearing in the local newspapers on many occasions.

Laura is an active member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a former member of Council, currently Treasurer of the Huddersfield section, and a long term volunteer visitor for the Benevolent Fund. Conveying scientific information to a wider audience is something about which she is passionate as her own scientific career has developed. She is also heavily involved in the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

As an acknowledgement of her work in the public awareness of science and alternatives to animal testing, Laura was awarded the British Science Association Charles Darwin Award.

Dr Anjana Khatwa

Dr Anjana Khatwa is an Earth Scientist specialising in bringing stories about the origins and formation of natural landscapes to life for a wide range of audiences.

Anjana appeared as a ‘super-contributor’ on BBC Four’s three-part series, Beach Live, where she was the show’s resident geologist expert, engaging audiences with her insight and knowledge about geology and fossils. She has also appeared several times on ITV’s This Morning and Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh., My Cornwall with Fern Britton and Lighthouses: Building the Impossible both on Channel 5, Villages by the Sea on BBC Two and Britain’s Novel Landscapes on More 4.

Anjana has appeared as a regular expert contributor on many natural history programmes such as BBC Two’s Fossil Detectives, The History Channel’s How the Earth was made, ITV1’s Treasures of Britain and PBS’s Treasures of the Earth.

She is an established expert in learning, engagement and inclusion within natural heritage, museums and the geosciences with multiple publications and articles in leading journals and popular magazines such as Nature Geoscience and BBC Wildlife. In November 2021, Anjana was longlisted for the Nan Shepherd Prize, a biennial literary prize for nature writing. In 2023, she was selected as a judge for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for nature writing. Her debut non-fiction book, The Whispers of Rock, is a global story of how rocks have not only shaped our world but also our lives. It will be published as a hardback in September 2025 by Little, Brown (UK) and Basic Books (US).

Anjana has won multiple awards over her stellar career in the geosciences including Royal Geographical Society Geographical Award, the RH Worth Medal by the Geological Society of London and the prestigious Halstead Medal from the Geologists’ Association. In 2020, she won a National Diversity Award as a Positive Role Model for Race, Faith and Religion.

Born and bred in Slough, Anjana had a humble upbringing in an urban environment but grew to love the natural world through holidays to places such as Kenya, which is where her family originate from. Anjana has a BSc. in Earth Science and a Ph.D. in Geography where she specialised in glacial geology. Her diverse background and voice brings a unique perspective to her work.

An experienced, passionate and inspiring public speaker, Anjana delivers lectures and speeches that are witty, light and insightful. She is in particular demand for her thought provoking lectures about the role of women and minorities in science, careers in the geosciences and new perspectives on understanding the geological sciences.

Anjana lives in Dorset with her husband and their three children. She enjoys an active lifestyle through running, swimming and also exploring the countryside of Dorset. A major pastime is spent filling her house with rocks and fossils she finds on the Jurassic Coast.

Lara Lewington

Lara is a TV presenter, journalist, and documentary maker specialising in lifestyle technology. She co-presents the BBC’s flagship technology show, Click (BBC One / BBC News). Having studied AI Ethics, and with a passion for people’s understanding artificial intelligence’s possibilities and limitations, she’s become a leading commentator across the media.

Lara has presented the BBC Panorama programme Beyond Human: Artificial Intelligence and Us and Tonight: Healthy Ageing for ITV1 and has written numerous articles on the topic.

Lara has appeared as an expert across a range of outlets including ITV’s Lorraine, BBC1’s The One Show, ITV’s Good Morning Britain, and has fronted several documentaries for Radio 4 including “A Documentary: By ChatGPT”.

Her other passion for living our healthiest lives for longer has seen her not only often wear an array of trackers, but also make a lot of content on longevity and health innovation. Her BBC documentary, “Forever Young?” saw her quest to separate science from snake oil, unravelling the real evidence of how we may be able to increase our “healthspans”.

Before joining Click in 2011, Lara’s media experience was vast and varied. She started out as a reporter for Channel Five, interviewing the biggest stars in the world, and fitting in a few gadget reviews for the channel when she had time. She was the technology columnist for the UK’s biggest selling weekly magazine, Woman, for four years, and has written for many other publications

 

Lucy Betteridge-Dyson

Lucy Betteridge-Dyson is an historian and broadcaster who specialises in military and animal history.

Lucy co-presented Channel 4’s ’48 Hours to Victory’ series in which she unpicked the two days that secured victory in some of Britain’s most important battles.

She co-presented the BBC Sounds podcast, Obsessed With…SAS Rogue Heroes and has also contributed to BBC One’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ as well as appearing on multiple other podcasts and online platforms including ‘We Have Ways of Making You Talk’ and WW2TV.

An enthusiastic public speaker, she is particularly passionate about engaging a wider audience with the history of the First and Second World Wars having worked with the BBC, Channel 4, National Army Museum, Global Radio, Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Royal British Legion.

Lucy graduated from QMUL in 2010 with a degree in Audio Systems Engineering, but her passion for history took her back to the subject for postgraduate study in the History of Britain and the First World War at the University of Wolverhampton. A battlefield guide and horse lover her current research focuses on the use of horses and mules in 20th century conflict and the Third Arakan campaign in Burma during the Second World War, on which she is a highly experienced speaker.

In 2019 Lucy founded Herstory Club which aims to connect women with a passion for history on both a social and professional level and she also works as a guide with Battleguide Virtual Tours. A regular contributor to the Great War Group’s journal, she is experienced at writing and speaking on military history for a variety of publications and audiences, from school children to academic conferences and magazines.