Primarily working with wood, Ben Rowe creates intriguing objects that draw the viewer into fascinating new worlds. Using geometrical shapes and mathematical laws applied in science and nature, he plays with notions of scale. Pulling down macro-objects such as asteroids and planets and blowing up micro-organisms, molecules and atoms, showing us their often overlooked, complex structures and frameworks, reflecting them back to us
Chris Wood is a UK based artist with a career spanning over 25 years. Known for her signature light-responsive artworks and transformative installations, Wood has garnered global acclaim, culminating in the establishment of the Chris Wood Light Studio , est. 2015.
Wood’s creative practice utilises optical materials to harness light and suggest ephemeral glimpsed moments in the natural world. Her meticulous pattern work and mathematical arrangements order the accidental and transform light into spectacular displays of vibrant colour.
Ione Parkin RWA is an abstract painter, co-lead artist on the Creativity and Curiosity project and an Honorary Visiting Fellow of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester. She is the curator of the exhibition ‘Cosmos: the art of observing Space’ currently showing at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol (24th January-19th April 2026).
Siobhan McDonald’s multifaceted exhibition PASSAGE explores Dublin’s deep history as a mutable landscape shaped by water, cosmology, and human intervention. Through film, sound, painting, and sculpture, the exhibition investigates how the city’s shifting ground holds memory and resilience.
Florian Neukart is Assistant Professor of Physics, Leiden University. He is widely recognized as a leading figure in high technology, innovation, and future tech. With extensive experience in academia, industry, and consulting, he has established himself as a trusted advisor and practitioner in artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
Currently serving as the Executive Board Member for Product at Terra Quantum AG, as the Director for Exponential Technologies at the Quantum Economy Institute, and on Board of Trustees of the International Foundation of Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing, Florian also holds a special advisory role at the Quantum Strategy Institute and serves on the Board of Advisors of KI Park. He has contributed significantly to shaping Germany’s approach to quantum computing as a co-author of the National Roadmap for Quantum Computing and sits on the Advisory Board of Quantum.Tech. Florian’s expertise has also been sought after on the global stage, as evidenced by his membership in the World Economic Forum’s Future Council on Quantum Computing.
Jonathan Goldenberg is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Evolutionary Biology, Lund University. He is an evolutionary biologist specializing in the dynamics of species evolution under changing environmental conditions. His research primarily investigates the function and evolution of colored integuments in animals. He integrates fieldwork, literature analysis, and museum collections with computer vision, biophysical models, spatial analyses, and phylogenetic comparative methods to examine how species respond to shifting environments at local and global scales, from past to present and into the future.
John Etnyre is currently a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
“I received my PhD from the University of Texas and then spent several years at Stanford with an NSF postdoctoral fellowship. The next stop was the University of Pennsylvania where, after four years, I became an Associate Professor and then moved to Georgia Tech.”
Enrique Gaztanaga is Professor of Astrophysics at Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth.
“I also have a civil servant (on leave) appointment as Research Professor in the Institute of Space Studies (ICE) working for the Spanish National Research Council (www.csic.es) and the IEEC in Barcelona. My background is in Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology. My expertise is in the area of theoretical models of Cosmology and the building and analysis of the largest Cosmic maps. I am currently director of the PAU Survey (pausurvey.org) and the Science Coordinator of ESA ARRAKIHS (arrakihs-mission.eu) space mission. ”
David Cornell is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Lancashire.
His research tends to be in metaphysics, but he is something of a generalist when it comes to philosophy and has taught students the full spectrum of philosophical topics, from ethics to epistemology and from logic to political theory.
We know from cognitive science and neuroscience that the brain is not a passive observer, like a camera lens. The brain actively composes what we perceive. Still we persist, in all our endeavors – from trying to cure cancer to conceiving of a unified theory – to operate from a materialist perspective. Perhaps this needs to change.