Peter Bannister, Romilly Life Sciences, United Kingdom
Peter has helped build multiple high-growth biomedical businesses, commercializing innovative products for surgery, diagnostics and digital treatment pathways in multiple international markets and leading R&D, regulated product development and strategic business development.
He founded Romilly Life Sciences to help health, tech and pharma organizations implement evidence-led digital product strategy, including technologies such as artificial intelligence, supported by effective cross-sector collaboration frameworks and coaching.
He is also co-founder of Migration Biotherapeutics, Honorary Professor at the University of Birmingham Centre for Regulatory Science and Innovation, Fellow and Chair of Sustainability and Net Zero at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, an Academy of Medical Sciences Future Leader in Innovation Enterprise and Research (FLIER) and sits on several NIHR advisory boards.
Title: Insights from the latest IET Skills Survey in Wales
Sophie Bartlett , Cardiff University, United Kingdom
Sophie is an education researcher based in the Education Data Lab at the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD) at Cardiff University. She works with Administrative Data Research Wales to explore educational outcomes for young people, particularly around themes of attainment and subject choice.
Sophie’s research interests centre around young people’s educational experiences and outcomes. In particular, how different factors shape young people’s attainment, interest, subject choice and sense of future opportunities. She completed her PhD in Physics Education at Cardiff University in 2019. This work evaluated interventions to improve secondary school pupils’ engagement with the physics curriculum.
Title: Patterns and Predictors of Post-16 Science Participation in Wales
Wendy J Sadler, Cardiff University, UK, United Kingdom
Wendy is a Reader in science communication for Cardiff University, Head of the Physics Education Research Group and the Director of EDI. She delivers public engagement and communications training for researchers and has a research interest in how role models can be used to inspire young people.
She is the founding Director of Science Made Simple – an award-winning social enterprise that offers science shows across the UK and internationally. Since 2002 they have reached over a million people and have worked in over 38 countries. She was awarded an MBE for services to science and engineering communication in the Queen’s Birthday honours list 2017.
Title – “It ain’t what you do, it’s the person that does it…”
Sub-title - Why attributes and characteristics matter to diversify STEM
Anita Shaw, STEMpowered Learning, United Kingdom
Dr Anita Shaw runs the education consultancy STEMpowered Learning. She ran the Welsh Valleys Engineering Project (WVEP) for the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2017-2024 and is now a consultant for This is Engineering: Schools-Welsh Valleys. She will talk about the WVEP’s Employer Engagement Strand, which developed long-term sustainable partnerships between its schools and local STEM industry, providing pupils with authentic learning experiences, and look at how this model can be expanded to schools and industries Wales-wide.
Title: How can industry engage meaningfully with schools?
