Steering Committee
QAMSS involves 18 departments, 6 schools and 4 non-school institutions across the University. The number of researchers (including early-career, ECRs) working in quantum technologies, advanced materials and sustainability across these organisations in Cambridge totals several hundred. Below are details of the steering committee members representing the parties involved.
Name | Department | School | |
| Natalia Berloff | Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics | Physical Sciences | ngb23@cam.ac.uk |
| Alexander Bird | Philosophy | Humanities & Art | ajb368@cam.ac.uk |
| Chiara Ciccarelli | Physics | Physical Sciences | cc538@cam.ac.uk |
| Simon Deakin | Law | Humanities & Social Sciences | sfd20@cam.ac.uk |
| Robert Doubleday | Centre for Science and Policy | Non-School Institution | rvld2@cam.ac.uk |
| Chander Velu | Engineering | Technology | cv236@cam.ac.uk |
| Michael Barrett | Cambridge Judge Business School | Technology | m.barrett@jbs.cam.ac.uk |
| Ljiljana Fruk | Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology | Technology | lf389@cam.ac.uk |
| Hannah Joyce* | Engineering | Technology | hjj28@cam.ac.uk |
| Adrian Kent | Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics / Centre for the Study of Existential Risk | Physical Sciences / Non-School Institution | apak@cam.ac.uk |
| Eric Miska* | Genetics; Gurdon Institute | Biological Sciences | eam29@cam.ac.uk |
| Robert Mullins | Computer Science and Technology | Technology | Robert.Mullins@cl.cam.ac.uk |
| Rachel Oliver | Materials Science and Metallurgy | Technology | rao28@cam.ac.uk |
| Andrew Nairne | History of Art | Humanities & Art | acn36@cam.ac.uk |
| Stefano Pluchino* | Clinical Neurosciences | Clinical Medicine | spp24@cam.ac.uk |
| Suchitra Sebastian | Physics /Cavendish Arts Science | Physical Sciences | ses59@cam.ac.uk |
| Amy Tobin* | History of Art and Kettles Yard | Humanities & Art | ajt207@cam.ac.uk |
| Ross Waller | Biochemistry | Biological Sciences | rfw26@cam.ac.uk |
| Steve Joy | Postdoc Academy | Non-School Institution | sj232@cam.ac.uk |
* Representative of the School
Meet the steering committee
Find out more about the people giving direction to QAMSS, their work, that of their groups, divisions and institutes and how this fits with the goals of QAMSS.
Dr Steve Joy
Dr Steve Joy is head of the Postdoc Academy at the University of Cambridge. He leads the Academy's work to enable postdoctoral researchers to realise their potential, working across the University and the wider research sector.
This includes informing policy and practice, developing researcher-support initiatives, advocating alongside postdocs and fostering a sense of community among researchers. He also co-leads the leadership development and coaching programmes of the national Future Leaders Fellows Development Network, which supports emerging research and innovation leaders across the UK. In 2025, Steve was appointed as the University's LGBTQ+ Equality Champion.
“I contribute expertise in researcher development, leadership and research culture to QAMSS, helping to connect its interdisciplinary research agenda with the needs and experiences of researchers across the University.”
Professor Robert Mullins
Rob is a Professor of Computer Architecture at the University of Cambridge. His research is focused on delivering efficient and secure ways to compute.
He was a co-founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and is also a co-founder and director of lowRISC CIC, a not-for-profit company focused on open-source silicon. lowRISC stewards the OpenTitan project, an open-source hardware root of trust deployed in numerous systems, including Google's Chromebooks and data centres. He is also a co-founder and CTO of CommonAI. CommonAI hosts the ARIA-funded Scaling Inference Lab, a cluster-scale testbed for evaluating novel AI hardware technologies.
Professor Stefano Pluchino
Stefano Pluchino is clinical professor of regenerative neuroimmunology and honorary consultant in neurology in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
He trained in experimental neuroscience at the University of Siena (MD and PhD) and held postdoctoral and group leader positions at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan before moving to Cambridge in 2010. His research group investigates whether neurological disability in chronic inflammatory neurodegenerative diseases, particularly multiple sclerosis, can be slowed by reprogramming the immune system using stem cell and extracellular vesicle-based advanced therapeutics. His work has challenged the classical view that cellular grafts act purely through structural replacement, opening a new therapeutic avenue centred on immune modulation. This is documented in over 280 publications, including articles in Nature, The Lancet and Cell Stem Cell, with more than 21,000 citations and an H-index of 67. He is a recipient of numerous awards, including the FISM Rita Levi-Montalcini Prize (2007), the International Royan Award in Stem Cell Biology (2010) and an ERC Starting Grant (2010).
"As a member of the QAMSS steering committee representing the Clinical School, I bring a translational neuroscience perspective to the network. My group's research sits at the intersection of neuroimmunology, stem cell biology and clinical medicine, and we increasingly rely on quantitative and integrative approaches, including single-cell multi-omics, epigenomics, metabolomics and computational modelling, to understand the mechanisms driving neurodegeneration and to develop and evaluate advanced therapeutics. I see QAMSS as a valuable bridge between these quantitative methods and their application to complex biological and clinical questions, and I am keen to help foster those connections across the University."