UK Prime Minister has appointed four trustees to the Science Museum Group

Anya Hurlbert
Appointed as a STEM Trustee

Anya Hurlbert is Professor of Visual Neuroscience and Dean of Advancement at Newcastle University. She co-founded Newcastle’s Institute of Neuroscience in 2003, serving as its co-Director until 2014, and now steers its Centre for Transformative Neuroscience. She was a Marshall Scholar and holds degrees in physics, physiology, brain and cognitive science, and medicine from Princeton, Cambridge, MIT and Harvard, respectively.

Anya’s research interests are focussed on the understanding of human vision, especially colour perception and its role in cognition and behaviour; her work includes applications in imaging, lighting, visual art, and human health. She received the Newton Medal (the Colour Group GB; 2022) and has delivered many named and keynote lectures, including the Edridge-Green Lecture (the Royal College of Ophthalmologists) and the Richard Gregory Memorial Lecture (Bristol Vision Institute).

Anya speaks and writes widely on colour vision and art, contributes to television and radio programmes, and has devised several science-based art exhibitions, including an interactive installation at the National Gallery, London. In addition to several international advisory boards, Anya serves on the Scientific Consultative Group of the National Gallery, where she was recently Scientific Trustee, and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Vision and Current Biology, the Board of Directors of the Vision Sciences Society, and the Rank Prize Funds Optoelectronics Committee.

Baroness Nicky Morgan
Appointed as a Senior Level Leadership Trustee

The Rt Hon the Baroness Morgan of Cotes (Nicky Morgan) is a former Conservative Minister having served in the Cabinets of David Cameron and Boris Johnson as, respectively, Minister for Women & Equalities, Education Secretary and Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary. She also chaired the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee for 2 years. She was the Member of Parliament for Loughborough between 2010 and 2019.

She has also served as Financial Secretary, Economic Secretary, a Government Whip and PPS to the Universities Minister. Before being elected she worked as a solicitor specialising in M&A.

Nicky is a founding trustee of a mental health charity in Leicestershire. She is now a member of the House of Lords and has a portfolio career with roles across the private and public sectors, including as a Non-Executive Director at Santander UK, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the Association of British Insurers, the Great Central Railway plc and the Careers & Enterprise Company. Nicky also chairs the Advisory Board of the Reform think tank.

Gregory Radick
Appointed as a STEM Trustee

Gregory Radick is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds. Educated at Rutgers University in New Jersey (where he was born and raised) and then at Cambridge University, he has published widely in the history of the life and human sciences since 1800. His book The Simian Tongue: The Long Debate about Animal Language (Chicago, 2007) was awarded the 2010 Suzanne J. Levinson Prize of the History of Science Society for best book in the history of the life sciences and natural history. His other books include Disputed Inheritance: The Battle over Mendel and the Future of Biology (Chicago, 2023) and, as co-editor, The Cambridge Companion to Darwin (Cambridge, 2003; 2nd edition, 2009). He has held fellowships from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust, and served as President of the British Society for the History of Science (2014-16) and the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (2019-21). He writes and lectures frequently for general audiences, and has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time and in the PBS/National Geographic television series Genius with Stephen Hawking.

Sarah Sands
Appointed as a Senior Level Leadership Trustee

Sarah Sands has had a prominent career in journalism; she has edited two newspapers, the Sunday Telegraph and The Evening Standard, and she went on to be editor of Radio 4’s Today programme. She currently serves on the board of Channel 4 and of the Berkeley Group and is a partner at Hawthorn Advisors. She is a trustee of Index on Censorship, an honorary fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge and of Goldsmiths College, London, and is chair of Bright Blue think tank. She founded the Braemar Science Summit now in its second year. She was appointed chair of G7 gender equality advisory council in 2021 and is a member of the council under German presidency this year. She has published a book on monastic lessons, The Interior Silence.

Science Museum Group Trustees are not remunerated. This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election.

Baroness Nicky Morgan declared having been a parliamentary candidate and elected MP for the Conservative Party.

Anya Hurlbert, Gregory Radick and Sarah Sands have declared no activity.