Tracey Brown (scientist)

Last updated

Tracey Brown is the director of Sense about Science. She leads the work on transparency of evidence used by governments in policy to ensure the public has the same access to evidence and reasoning as the decision makers. Brown has launched multiple initiatives with Sense about Science to expand and protect honest discussions of evidence, including AllTrials, a global campaign for the reporting of all clinical trial outcomes; and the Ask for Evidence campaign, which engages the public in requesting evidence for claims.

Contents

Career

When it was launched in 2002, [1] she became director of Sense about Science. [2] Under her leadership, [3] the organisation has created a public awareness for sound science and evidence, prompting accountability. [4]   In 2010, she drafted the Principles for the Treatment of Independent Scientific Advice which was finalised and accepted into the Ministerial Code by the UK government later that year. [5] In 2013, Brown created the public interest defence to libel in the Defamation Act 2013 and the Evidence Transparency Framework, used to audit UK government in 2016 and 2017. [6] [7] In 2015 she gave a TEDTalk on The Power of Asking for Evidence [8] and the following year was a judge for the John Maddox Prize for Standing up for Science. [9]

She is a trustee at the Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science as well as the Chair of Trustees at the Jurassica Project [10] which, in 2017, merged with another endeavour to create The Journey. [11] She is also an advisory board member of OpenTrials and was named a friend of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2009. [12]

Views

Brown is a vocal critic of the idea of a "post truth" society, advocating that the public still has great interest in sound and trustworthy evidence. [13]

Writing

She has written for The Guardian, [14] as well as periodical publications and public guides, [15] writing and editing the 2009 peer review survey. [16] She has written two books co-authored by the late science journalist, Michael Hanlon titled Playing by the Rules: How Our Obsession with Safety Is Putting Us All at Risk [17] and In the Interests of Safety. [18]

Awards and recognition

In 2010, Brown was named one of the top ten most influential people in science policy [19] and, in 2014, one of the top ten policy making scientists by the UK Science Council.

Brown received an OBE in 2017 for her services to science [20] and, in 2020, was made an honorary professor by University College London. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracey Ullman</span> British-American actress, comedian, singer, dancer, director, producer and writer

Tracey Ullman is a British-American actress, comedian, singer, dancer, writer, producer, and director. Critics have lauded her ability to shift seamlessly in and out of character and accents, with many dubbing her the "female Peter Sellers". Her earliest mainstream appearances were on British television sketch comedy shows A Kick Up the Eighties and Three of a Kind. After a brief singing career, she appeared as Candice Valentine in Girls on Top with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rupert Sheldrake</span> English author and parapsychological researcher

Alfred Rupert Sheldrake is an English author and parapsychology researcher. He proposed the concept of morphic resonance, a conjecture that lacks mainstream acceptance and has been widely criticized as pseudoscience. He has worked as a biochemist at Cambridge University, a Harvard scholar, a researcher at the Royal Society, and a plant physiologist for ICRISAT in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracey Emin</span> English artist (born 1963)

Dame Tracey Karima Emin is an English artist known for autobiographical and confessional artwork. She produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and sewn appliqué. Once the "enfant terrible" of the Young British Artists in the 1980s, Tracey Emin is now a Royal Academician.

As an ethic that spans science, engineering, business, and the humanities, transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed. Transparency implies openness, communication, and accountability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melanie Phillips</span> British journalist

Melanie Phillips is a British public commentator, columnist, and author who resides in Israel. She began her career writing for The Guardian and New Statesman. During the 1990s, she came to identify with ideas more associated with right-wing politics and the far-right and currently writes for The Times, The Jerusalem Post, and The Jewish Chronicle, covering political and social issues from a socially conservative perspective. Phillips, quoting Irving Kristol, defines herself as a liberal who has "been mugged by reality".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Maddox</span> Welsh chemist, physicist, journalist and editor (1925–2009)

Sir John Royden Maddox, FRS was a Welsh theoretical chemist, physicist, and science writer. He was an editor of Nature for 22 years, from 1966 to 1973 and 1980 to 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edzard Ernst</span> German academic physician and researcher (born 1948)

Edzard Ernst is a retired British-German academic physician and researcher specializing in the study of complementary and alternative medicine. He was Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, the world's first such academic position in complementary and alternative medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Roberts</span> English academic, TV presenter and author

Alice May Roberts is an English academic, TV presenter and author. Since 2012 she has been Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham. She was president of the charity Humanists UK between January 2019 and May 2022. She is now a vice-president of the organisation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sense about Science</span> British non-profit organisation

Sense about Science is a United Kingdom charitable organization that promotes the public understanding of science. Sense about Science was founded in 2002 by Lord Taverne, Bridget Ogilvie and others to promote respect for scientific evidence and good science. It was established as a charitable trust in 2003, with 14 trustees, an advisory council and a small office staff. Tracey Brown has been the director since 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracey Crouch</span> British politician

Dame Tracey Elizabeth Anne Crouch is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chatham and Aylesford from 2010 to 2024. Crouch was appointed as Minister for Sport, Civil Society and Loneliness in 2017, but resigned in 2018 due to a delay over the introduction of reduced limits on the stakes of fixed odds betting terminals.

Bellingcat is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT). It was founded by British citizen journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in July 2014. Bellingcat publishes the findings of both professional and citizen journalist investigations into war zones, human rights abuses, and the criminal underworld. The site's contributors also publish guides to their techniques, as well as case studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Robert Grimes</span> Irish science writer (born 1985)

David Robert Grimes is an Irish science writer with professional training in physics and cancer biology, who contributes to several media outlets on questions of science and society. He has a diverse range of research interests and is a vocal advocate for increased public understanding of science. He was the 2014 recipient of the Sense about Science/Nature Maddox Prize for "Standing up for Science in the face of Adversity". He is a fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Britt Marie Hermes</span> American former naturopathic doctor and blogger (born 1984)

Britt Marie Hermes is an American former naturopathic doctor who became a critic of naturopathy and alternative medicine. She is the author of a blog, Naturopathic Diaries, where she writes about being trained and having practiced as a licensed naturopath and about the problems with naturopaths as medical practitioners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzi Gage</span> British psychologist and epidemiologist

Suzanne H. Gage is a British psychologist and epidemiologist who is interested in the nature of associations between lifestyle behaviours and mental health. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool and has a popular science podcast and accompanying book, Say Why to Drugs, which explores substance use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irene Tracey</span> British neuroscientist (born 1966)

Irene Mary Carmel Tracey is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and former Warden of Merton College, Oxford. She is also Professor of Anaesthetic Neuroscience in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and formerly Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Oxford. She is a co-founder of the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), now the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging. Her team’s research is focused on the neuroscience of pain, specifically pain perception and analgesia as well as how anaesthetics produce altered states of consciousness. Her team uses multidisciplinary approaches including neuroimaging.

The John Maddox Prize is an international prize administered by Sense about Science in partnership with Nature. One or two individuals are recognised annually by the Prize for their work promoting sound science and evidence despite hostility. The prize was started in 2012 in commemoration of John Maddox, former editor-in-chief of Nature, who was distinguished in his advancement of science for the public interest. Winners receive a monetary award and an announcement is published in Nature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisabeth Bik</span> Scientific integrity expert (1966-)

Elisabeth Margaretha Harbers-Bik is a Dutch microbiologist and scientific integrity consultant. Bik is known for her work detecting photo manipulation in scientific publications, and identifying over 4,000 potential cases of improper research conduct. Bik is the founder of Microbiome Digest, a blog with daily updates on microbiome research, and the Science Integrity Digest blog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christina Pagel</span> British German mathematician

Christina Pagel is a German-British mathematician and professor of operational research at University College London (UCL) within UCL's Clinical Operational Research Unit (CORU), which applies operational research, data analysis and mathematical modelling to topics in healthcare. She was Director of UCL CORU from 2017 to 2022 and is currently Vice President of the UK Operational Research Society. She also co-leads, alongside Rebecca Shipley, UCL's CHIMERA research hub which analyses data from critically ill hospital patients.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bambang Hero Saharjo</span> Indonesian forest fire researcher

Dr. Bambang Hero Saharjo is an Indonesian fire forensics specialist and Professor of the Environment and Forest Fires at Bogor Agricultural University. In 2019, he won the Sense About Science John Maddox award for his work to prevent companies, particularly those of the palm oil industry, from using illegal methods of land clearance in Indonesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohammad Razai</span> British doctor and researcher

Mohammad Sharif Razai is a physician, poet, author and researcher. He was awarded the 2021 John Maddox Prize as an early career researcher, by Sense about Science and Nature for his work on racial health inequalities.

References

  1. ↑ "Tracey Brown - Governing Scientific Accountability in China - University of Kent". www.kent.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  2. ↑ "2017 John Maddox Prize – Sense about Science". senseaboutscience.org. 30 November 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  3. ↑ Brown, Tracey (28 September 2015). "Can you handle the truth? Some ugly facts in science and sensibility". the Guardian. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  4. ↑ Brown, Tracey (2 October 2015). "Science and sensibility: on the untrustworthy nature of truth - podcast". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  5. ↑ "Principles for the Treatment of Independent Scientific Advice". senseaboutscience.org. 13 September 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  6. ↑ "Defamation Act 2013 - Sense about Science". archive.senseaboutscience.org. 2 January 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  7. ↑ "Institute for Government Evidence Transparency Framework". instituteforgovernment.org.uk. 1 November 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  8. ↑ TEDx Talks (5 January 2015), The power of asking for evidence | Tracey Brown | TEDxRoyalHolloway , retrieved 18 November 2018
  9. ↑ "2016 John Maddox Prize – Sense about Science". senseaboutscience.org. 17 November 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  10. ↑ www.webmandesign.eu, WebMan -. "Wessex Entrepreneurs". www.wessexentrepreneurs.com. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  11. ↑ "Dinosaur quarry museum plan scrapped". BBC News. 11 October 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  12. ↑ "Tracey Brown - Governing Scientific Accountability in China - University of Kent". www.kent.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  13. ↑ Brown, Tracey (19 September 2016). "The idea of a 'post-truth society' is elitist and obnoxious". the Guardian. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  14. ↑ Brown, Tracey (9 July 2013). "The precautionary principle is a blunt instrument". the Guardian. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  15. ↑ Cossu, Giulio; Birchall, Martin; Brown, Tracey (4 October 2017). "Fixing flaws in science must be professionalised". Lancet. 391 (10123): 883–910. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31366-1. hdl: 1983/eddb0b24-8623-4138-b945-d7cf694e674b . PMID   28987452. S2CID   38292636 . Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  16. ↑ "2009 Peer Review Survey". senseaboutscience.org. 12 December 2009. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  17. ↑ Brown, Tracey (2016). Playing by the rules : how our obsession with safety is putting us all at risk. Michael Hanlon. Naperville, IL. ISBN   978-1-4926-2071-6. OCLC   918591299.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. ↑ Brown, Tracey (2014). In the interests of safety : the absurd rules that blight our lives and how we can change them. Michael Hanlon. London. ISBN   978-0-7515-5349-9. OCLC   879399022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  19. ↑ "The Times top ten – Sense about Science". 13 September 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  20. ↑ "Tracey Brown OBE – Sense about Science". senseaboutscience.org. 27 June 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  21. ↑ "UCL Institutional Research Information Service - Ms Tracey Brown". iris.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.