嘟嘟AV

Kenneth Feinstein

I work in new media, installation art and experimental film. My current research is exploring bringing the voices forward to an audience in new ways. Overall my work has been about how media is used to create forms of an inclusive otherness. Themes/Mediums: I'm interested in heritage and voices from the community forward in non-narrative ways.

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Carlo Eugeni

I work on Media Accessibility, or the translation and adaptation of media outputs (like movies, documentaries, entertainment programmes, websites) for people with a sensory disability (deaf, blind, hard of hearing, partially sighted) or an intellectual disability. These include modes like subtitling, dubbing, voice over, and audio description. Themes/Mediums: creative subtitling - whereby subtitles become part of the performance and not just an accessibility tool - would be an ideal artistic practice for the Light Night Leeds, and relatively easy to apply 

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Pinar Yelmi

I have been working on collecting urban soundscapes and preserving them in the context of intangible cultural heritage over a decade. I have intended to raise public awareness of urban soundscapes through interactive and experiential exhibitions, soundwalks, documentaries, collaborative platforms and community engagement. Themes/Mediums: Interactive storytelling, multisensory work, blend art forms (music/movement/sound/animation/visual and digital arts)

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• Some articles related to my research:  and 

Emily Middleton

My research sits at the intersection of digital methods and Victorian literature and culture, with a particular focus on the life and works of Charles Dickens. I'm currently writing a biography which tells the story of his life through the places he lived and visited. I'm interested in how technology can change our relationship to the past, and how we can use digital spaces to reconstruct texts, images, and places, creating new audiences and emotional responses. Themes/Mediums: nan

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Sreya Chatterjee

My research looks at 21st century travel narratives — both print publications and New Media, by Indian women, to investigate how the genre has been reinterpreted under the simultaenous thrusts of postcolonialsm and globalisation. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect pf travel. I especially pay close attention the reimagined praxis of travel in more ecologically compassionate ways, and travel narratives crafted in the digital space by Indians of non normative gender and sexualities. Themes/Mediums: I would especially like to engage with queer themes and travel, potentially diasporic queer travel, in real time but also in its representation across digital spaces. A work that represents the experience of travel as a queer person, accompanied by a visual landscape through the movement of light, images and audio would be great!

Toby Huelin

My research explores music in the screen industries, with a focus on production practices and 'everyday' media (e.g. news broadcasts; travel documentaries; competition series). I am particularly interested in library music – the sonic equivalent of stock images – and music for television. My current project involves using large-scale quantitative datasets to examine changes in TV music over the last 25 years. Themes/Mediums: My work engages with themes of nostalgia, popular culture, and practices of everyday life, so I'd be keen to work with an artist whose practices also engage with these areas. Additionally, I'd love to explore information/data art through this project, finding ways to translate quantitative data about music in television – generated through my research – into fascinating artworks that can engage a broad audience.

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Rob Eagle

My research in digital and immersive art focuses on the role that place and locally-specific audiences play in the activation and engagement of an artwork or experience. My background in social anthropology involves spending time in a place to build a dynamic picture of how people interact with each other and their environment. This approach forms the foundation for how I understand the potential of public art and interventions in a particular place. Themes/Mediums: place data visualisations; materiality of digital/light art; co-creation with a place/community for digital and light art

Sofia Martinho

I research on multilingualism and work on advocacy for language learning. Themes/Mediums: I woukd like to map out, visually, the languages spoken in Leeds (census data per ward in the city) by creating an (interactive?) map with neon light signs. One neon sign per ward with a word in the most spoken language for that area. Open to other ideas! Sound could also be included.

Josie South

I work in fish conservation - understanding how we can balance sustainable trade while tackling climate change, non-native species and habitat destruction. I work with peat swamp fishes and endangered species across Africa and Indonesia. Themes/Mediums: fish, installation, film, sound.

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Anastasia Zhuravleva

My research aims to understand how cells keep their proteins healthy and properly folded. When the cell quality-control system fails, damaged proteins build up and disrupt cell function, contributing to diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disorders. By uncovering how cells detect and respond to protein damage, our work helps identify new ways to prevent or treat these conditions. 

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Seb Stroud

I work on botanical education, specifically the value of knowing plants brings to ecological and environmental attitudes and combating grand challenges. My work also covered nature-based solutions and ecosystem services. Additionally I am the academic lead for the new university botanic garden. Themes/Mediums: Power of plants, natural products produced from campus 

Hailey Ashton

I research how a sustainable plastic alternative called regenerated cellulose film (RCF) breaks down in different environments and whether it has any harmful effects. I do this in the lab by looking at how RCF breaks down in a model of cow stomachs, and by looking at how plants grow in compost containing RCF. I hope my research demonstrates that RCF is an environmentally safe plastic alternative to support its uptake as a packaging material. Themes/Mediums: Plastic pollution/environmental degradation. Particularly interested in working with interactive art.

Hannah Campbell

My research focuses on closing the gender health gap, where women spend around 25% more of their lives in ill health than men, particularly during their prime working and reproductive years. I explore women’s lived experiences of health and movement, highlighting how environments designed around male bodies create barriers to women being active. By reframing muscle and movement as central to women’s health, my work aims to support cultural change and empower women to move, inhabit space, and thrive. 

Richa Yeshvekar

My research uses advanced microscopy to visualise how plant cells are built and how they communicate with each other at the microscopic scale. By visualising tiny “gateways” between cells and the surrounding cell walls in fruits, I study how these structures change during growth and stress, with the long-term aim of improving crop quality, shelf life, and sustainable agriculture. Themes/Mediums: I’m particularly interested in working with microscopy-driven imagery as a creative medium, to translate hidden plant structures into visual narratives that are engaging for non-specialist audiences. I’d like to explore themes of connectivity, growth, and resilience, and to experiment with practices such as light-based installations, large-scale prints, and collaborations that turn scientific images into immersive or tactile experiences.

Qian Wu

Our lab is studying the basic mechanisms of DNA repair in the human system. Our work combines structural biology and biophysical methods to understand how key proteins repair double-strand breaks and interstrand cross-links, which are highly toxic DNA lesions. We would like to understand the similarities and differences in these DNA repair functions between normal and cancer cells, and how they respond to cancer treatments.

Beatrice Filippi

We study how the brain senses hormones and nutrients to control metabolism, including how much we eat, how our bodies manage blood sugar, and how we regulate body temperature. We are especially interested in how insulin communicates with the brain to regulate these processes, and what happens when the brain no longer responds properly to insulin, as in obesity and diabetes.

Oksana Degtjarik

We illuminate proteins that decorate the cell’s skeleton — the microtubules. By tagging these proteins with a green fluorescent marker, we can watch them glow inside living human cells under high-resolution microscopes. We then use cryo-electron tomography to reconstruct these glowing structures in three dimensions, revealing how life’s scaffolding looks when light and cutting-edge imaging meet. Themes/Mediums: digital art, photography, moving objects, projections, music.

Alexandra Holmes

This is a joint application with Dr Grace Roberts. As teaching and scholarship staff, our research is primarily around ways people learn and how we can develop teaching and practices to best support this. Our interests are primarily in active and experiential learning, i.e. how we learn through our experiences and experimentation as well as activities. This is particularly important in lab-based learning in biological sciences, as it incorporates object-based learning, complex problem-solving, physical skills as well as the application of knowledge to practical tasks.

Fiachra McEnaney

I am a behavioural neuroscientist (think of Pinky and Brain, white lab coat mad scientist putting a mouse in a box, observing its behaviour and recording and analysing results). My current project is looking at how experiences early in life can affect behaviours later in life in patient-derived genetic mouse models of schizophrenia. 

Links: at the University of Dundee. My current research is working in a similar field, just slightly different (schizophrenia instead of depression and genetic mouse models instead of environmental).

Michelle Peckham

Our lab is interested in what cells look like on the inside, and how this changes from cell to cell, and tissue to tissue. We use many different forms of microscopy, from light to electron microscopy, to see inside, and understand how cells organise their constituents, a thing of beauty. Themes/Mediums: I think the images we generate (which are both still images, and movies) would be great for projection. It would be good to work with someone on that. I'd like to get my whole lab involved.

Tell us about your research: I combine research from ecology, conservation science, evolutionary biology and genomics to support conservation decision making and help make conservation of rare and endangered species more effective.

We use a technique called environment DNA (eDNA) that helps determine what species are present in an ecosystem from tiny traces of DNA detected in environmental samples of water, air, soil etc. I'm interested in how artistic media could be used to visualise the complex datasets, and allow people to enter the 'species space' of an ecosystem and explore how species might be interacting. See links to some relevant papers:

I'm wondering if it would be possible to make installations based on 'heat trees' and species interaction networks. Another idea could be a projection installation based on the history of the evolution of life from the first cells to the present day.

Thomas Irish

I work with circular external fixation frames that hold lower limb fractures (commonly high energy tibia fractures) stable and in place so the body can rebuild the fractured bone. The really cool part is that the frames allow a certain amount of controlled motion which means that the fracture site can squeeze and relax which counterintuitively stimulates both healing if done properly. Themes/Mediums: I think that through the use of a projector and LED light strips we can develop some form of large scale representation of the bone healing with the led strips showing how the load through the bone and the fixator facilitates the healing. I haven't published any work yet but if you look up either "hexapod" or "Ilizarov" external fixation there are lots of images and papers online. Also happy to chat about it.

Alex Torku

My research vision is to create ‘age-friendly’ cities, communities, and workplaces. I am the founder and leader of the Ageing Intervention Development Laboratory (AID Lab). At AID Lab, we aim to create Ageing Intervention Developments (AID): 

1. to promote an age-friendly construction industry where older construction workers feel safe, comfortable, and happy while improving productivity.
2. to promote an age-friendly built environment (our daily surroundings, such as workplaces, buildings, parks, roads, and pavement) that is inclusive and accessible to promote active ageing.
3. inspired by smart technologies (e.g., smart sensing, wearable technologies, augmented reality/immersive virtual reality).

I employ person-centred, community-based participatory research, and policy-level approaches to inform decision-making outcomes in age-friendly cities, communities, and workplaces towards improving equity, social justice, and inclusivity for ageing persons within the construction industry and the built environment infrastructure. Themes/Mediums: I am particularly interested in collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches and would welcome the opportunity to learn from and work alongside any artists.

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Timothy Moorsom

I research a class of materials that exhibit "topological effects". Topology is a field of maths that deals with knots, and these materials effectively have knots in their quantum states that give them special properties that we are trying to unlock. I am fascinated by the way that the world we know, even at the human scale, is influenced by the symmetry, resonances and almost musical quality of quantum states. Themes/Mediums: I am interested in sound and light projection. When I teach quantum mechanics to my students, I often invoke music as an allegory. This field also owes a lot to early philosphers like Euclid, who saw geometry as almost sacred, and this could provide some fertile ground for creative projections coupled with sound.

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Michael Webb

We are developing a new strategy to modify the mixture of sugars displayed on the surface of cells. These cell surface glycans are produced in the Golgi by a complex network of reactions leading to a wide variety of different products on the surface of the cell. These reactions are all interdependent and small perturbations therefore might lead to larger than expected changes. 

Johanna Galloway

Tell us about your research: Developing sustainable methods (using water instead of harsh solvents and at room temperature) to make materials that can be used in sustainable energy generation. For example, finding and testing biomolecules that template the formation of materials that can be used to catalyse the generation of solar powered hydrogen and electricity. Themes/Mediums: Many of the materials I work with capture light, and are colourful, but I am open to working with whoever is interested.

I do not have any of this work published yet. My grant information is at .

Rhiannon Matthias

Tell us about your research: The research cluster focuses on decarbonising cement and concrete through recycling (in warzones/ following major natural disasters) and the manufacture of alternative mixtures that are lower in carbon and faster setting. Themes/Mediums: The main themes could include: time, texture, weight, labour, extraction, and earth. I think that different light and surface, an audio-led display, a sculpture made using the binders being developed.

May Newisar

My research explores women’s safety in public spaces, focusing on how experiences of threat and belonging are shaped by cultural identity and memory. I work with communities to understand how place, heritage, and lived experience influence feelings of safety, and how these insights can shape more inclusive urban design. I’m interested in how creative forms like light, sound, and projection can make these invisible stories visible.

Thomas Whale

Tell us about your research: I work on the formation of ice. I occupy a distinctive niche at the intersection of theory and experiment, focusing on the mechanisms of ice nucleation (the initial appearance of a microscopic body of ice in supercooled water). I apply these insights to both atmospheric processes and cryobiological systems, advancing understanding across disciplines. Themes/Mediums: I'd potentially be interested in doing something on the diverse shapes of ice crystals and the role ice in the atmosphere plays in climate.

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Benjamin Mills

I work on simulations of Earth's climate evolution over the planet's lifetime, the role of life in driving climate and environmental change, and how life might survive on other worlds. We have evolving maps of the Earth's changing continents and climate (and other stuff) over the last billion years showing various episodes of extreme climate change. 

Adam Booth

Tell us about your research: I'm a geoscientist, working as part of a geothermal research group, which explores how we can increase the uptake of cheap, clean and carbon neutral geothermal energy. We look to overcome both the geological and legislative barriers to unlocking the UK's significant geothermal potential. Using our own campus as a geothermal test-bed, we aim to demonstrate how "heat beneath your feet" can help Leeds accelerate net-zero carbon ambitions. Themes/Mediums: I think a visual depiction of heat flow through the ground and ending up "warming a building" could be a really effective way of drawing attention to geothermal energy provision. 

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Lauren Rawlins

Using a mix of artificial intelligence to analyse satellite images, alongside drone and sound-wave (sonar) surveys in the field, our research maps and monitors glacial lakes across the world’s highest mountain regions of High Mountain Asia. As glaciers melt, glacial lakes are increasing in their number and size, and because of their fragile natural dams, can suddenly burst, triggering devastating floods that impact downstream communities. By combining on-the-ground measurements with views from space, as well as working closely with partners in the region, our research looks at how rapidly these mountain environments are changing and helps improve understanding of water resources and emerging glacial hazards. Themes/Mediums: Light, sound, installation or projection - all these options sound incredibly interesting to explore, and unique ways to translate our research to a public audience (which is of critical importance to highlight what vulnerable regions are facing in this climate crisis).

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in Nov 2025 alongside Professor Duncan Quincey and Kenton Cool.

Diane Threapleton

Early years nutrition, child health and growth. I have developed standards for commercial baby foods with the World Health Organization, trying to bring regulation to the wild-west - a situation where foods marketed as suitable for babies are packed full of sugar and encased in healthy and positive marketing messages. I'm working with the policy sector and also co-leading a study of 2000 children looking at how diet impacts growth and dental heath. 

• Commercial baby foods crisis revealed in Leeds research

Lee Brown

I study microbe-plant-invertebrate-fish interactions in rivers to understand how environmental change affects freshwater ecosystems, and how we can protect and restore their water quality and ecological health. Part of this work involves using high resolution (15min currently but can be as high as 1 sec) oxygen and temperature sensors which allow us to monitor river health on a sub-daily basis. In essence we can 'take the pulse' of the river with our measurements. We already have a set of sensors in the River Aire in Leeds which detect seasonal changes as well as pollution incidents. 

I am interested in novel ways to communicate these findings to a wider audience and have been thinking about visual electronic displays, but this is beyond my skill set. Rivers are in poor health in many parts of the world and scientific information alone is not cutting through enough to the general public or decision makers. I am really keen to see if the arts can help to drive some meaningful changes instead.

We haven't published any of these datasets yet but you can .

Harriet Thew

My research focuses on climate justice, climate change education and youth participation in climate change decision-making. I am also the West Yorkshire Place Lead for the Joined Up Sustainability Transformations (JUST) Research Centre, working with local communities and organisations to develop local, place-based approaches to sustainability transformations. Themes/Mediums: I am particularly interested in working with artists who use participatory methods to explore themes of climate justice, youth voice, and place-based sustainability. I am keen on approaches that are immersive, interactive, or co-created with local communities, especially young people. I am open to a range of mediums, including projection mapping, data-driven art, sculptural light installations, and sound–light combinations.

Lynn Wray

My practice-based research is focused on how to make visible and engage publics in the hidden/invisible scientific and technological processes that impact on their everyday lives. At present, I am working with the School of Earth and Environment on the 'Stories from the Subsurface' project focused on using creative storytelling methods to engage public audiences in the research developed around sustainable energy solutions in the 'ground beneath our feet' as part of the Geosolutions team. I've worked up an idea to develop an animated film from the modelling of fracture networks as part of interdisciplinary work on the Geothermal Campus project which is aimed at facilitating the University to meet its aim of a net zero campus. Themes/Mediums: I would like to work with a technical expert in projection or a projection artist to explore the challenge oh how to project this directly onto the ground/ work out the projection mapping as part of Light Night. 

Ben Kew

I specialise in sensory texture science, investigating how the nano and micro scale physical structures of food behave in the mouth impacting food like and dislike. I particularly focus on enhancing sustainable plant based proteins by examining how these proteins interact orally and how their structural properties shape mouthfeel and texture. I use 3D printed, biomimetic tongue like surfaces to study these effects. I also conduct neural imaging research to understand brain responses during food consumption and explore how saliva interacts with foods at the nanoscale to influence preferences and aversions. Altogether, my work aims to advance the sensory acceptability and improve function of plant based proteins to help transition to reducing animal protein consumption that is detrimental to the planet. Themes/Mediums: Sculpture, enlarge the nano-scale and microscale of food (which is very beautiful!) to raise awareness of how we should reduce meat consumption. Perhaps a performance piece as well, I imagine a large mouth like model/scene and have a performance of food particles and interactions in the mouth (such as saliva-binding of wine or melting of fat in chocolate which influences mouthfeel - raising the importance of texture of food which is often more important than taste!)

Sameera Rafiq

The National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC) is a pan-UK Innovation Knowledge Centre hosted by the 嘟嘟AV that brings together academia, industry, regulators, third-sector partners including policy makers to tackle scientific, technical, commercial and regulatory challenges in the alternative protein sector and help make alternative proteins mainstream. It is built around four interdisciplinary knowledge pillars — PRODUCE, PROCESS, PERFORM and PEOPLE — which together span the supply chain from protein ingredient production and scalable processing to performance in foods and consumer acceptance.

Through collaborative research, novel tools, knowledge exchange and partnerships, NAPIC accelerates discovery, innovation and commercialisation of sustainable alternative protein solutions that address health, environmental and food security goals. Themes/Mediums: Interested in working with themes around food, sustainability, innovation and the future of how we eat, particularly where science, society and creativity intersect to solve challenge to feed the world with alternative proteins. I’m keen to explore light-based and immersive mediums — such as projection, installation, or interactive elements — that can make complex ideas on alternative proteins for a sustainable planet accessible and engaging for a public audience.

. Link to publications on page 53.

Nicky Kerr

Tell us about your research: My research focuses on understanding how climate change, particularly glacier retreat, is affecting river ecosystems all around the world, with my research currently focussed on the Himalayas. I measure the biodiversity of rivers by collecting invertebrates (e.g. insects), algae, bacteria and fungi and comparing this to gradients of change, such as declining glacier cover, changing hydroclimates or biogeochemistry, to understand current and future impacts on river ecosystems. I also work with a broad range of researchers all studying glaciers, glacier retreat and its downstream consequences (Global Impacts of Glacier Retreat group), which could also be incorporated as a broader theme (see below links). 
Themes/Mediums: Light and colour; sound (e.g. sounds of a river, melting ice etc)

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John Marsham

The climate crisis poses an existential threat to our civilisation. I am (with Andy Challinor, SEE) a co-author on a paper calling for a global climate change risk assessment of risks we can avoid through cutting greenhouse gas emissions - it contains examples of risk analysis for climate change, eg risk of sea-level rise we cannot protect London from as a function of time, risk of intolerable humid heat, and how risks cascade eg from climate through food, water, health to geopolitical stability, which then affects food etc. Themes/Mediums: Any. An opportunity is to communicate climate risk as a function of what we choose to do as a society now, for near future - and for further future - including many generations from now

Paper is in review - but can share once we have a positive response (expected soon). I have availability after 15 April, I might struggle to meet before then but if that's needed, perhaps AndyChallinor could.

Jack Smith

We are building access to smart geospatial data to address pressing challenges in food and lifestyles, mobility, and place-based inequalities. We work to develop the understanding of the intersection of health and sustainability within places, and create insight into themes such as food accessibility, public transport usage, economic inclusivity, and urban population movement. Themes/Mediums: Potentially light projection/installation, but open minded.

Julie Peacock

Plant identification skills are very limited among the general public. This is influenced in part by plant blindness, the tendency not to notice plants, which likely has evolutionary origins, as well as by society’s growing disconnection from nature and the limited emphasis on plant science education within the school curriculum. My research looks to understand the impacts of poor plant awareness on societal challenges (climate change, pollution, mental health and wellbeing etc) and also to work towards ways to help reverse the trend. 

Jim McQuaid

I have a visualisation project called which presents air pollution going back in time (similar to the Climate Stripes). Years ago I saw and it featured a really cool device for drawing with light called a .

Katherine Markwell

Tell us about your research: My research is particularly focused on chronic disease prevention (including weight management) using behaviour change principles and health promotion. Currently I am evaluating impacts on health and wellbeing of the 嘟嘟AV sustainable garden on health. In the past I have looked at dietary variety and physical activity during the Covid pandemic in Mauritius, cardiometabolic risk factors and workplace health. Themes/Mediums: visual artists including sculpture possibly with a sound element.

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Terry Hall

As an impact and engagement fellow for Nurturing Innovation in Care 嘟嘟AV Excellence in Leeds (NICHE Leeds), I support the dissemination of the partnerships research.

My main focus currently is COMMIT, where we are trying to improve the delivery of mouth care for residents in care homes. As part of this process I have worked with illustrators and animators to create the NICHE Leeds Virtual Care 嘟嘟AV. This is a project where complex findings are broken down into accessible content through the medium of animation.

We are moving to expand this to other areas of our research, like technology in care homes. But my designs, and the work of the illustrator, offer us an interesting opportunity for Leeds Lights. 

Thuy Do

As a Professor of Molecular Microbiology, I use genetic sequencing to map the complex microbial communities, or biofilms, that live within the human mouth. My research focuses on understanding how these microbes interact and why their balance shifts from health to disease, such as tooth decay and gum inflammation.

By decoding these invisible ecosystems, I am working to develop personalised diagnostic tools that improve both dental health and our understanding of the mouth-body connection.

Themes/Mediums: Microbial shapes, forms and colours. Microbes as single species, and as part of a microbial community, biofilms. I am also interested in how they interact with the environment and humans, contributing to health and to diseases. Microbes are all around us, I'd like to work with all and any types of media that provide a good representation of microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi). This can be from drawings and paintings, microscopy images etc.

Jonathan Vernon

My research surrounds the complex balance of microorganisms in the human mouth, and how delicate shifts in these populations affect not only the oral health, but all sorts of disorders across the whole of the body, including the heart, brain and joints.

The main theme I would like to explore is that of the mouth being integral to all areas of the body, where differing lights represent balance and imbalance of the oral microbial populations, where the imbalance can then be traced to brain, heart and joints that become "inflamed" by lights. Fibre optics/LED strips/projection mapping – I'm open to ideas. 

 is just one of the systemic links, but the idea would be to highlight the mouth as a vital pathway to overall health.

Duncan Wilson

I am a medical statistician. My research develops and evaluates new ways to design and analyse clinical trials, and to help patients make good decisions based on the data these trials produce.

I am particularly interested in how we think about risk and uncertainty when we make decisions about treatment. I would be really interested to explore themes of randomness and uncertainty, and how we use mathematics to structure that uncertainty and use it to help people (e.g. by making predictions). I would be completely open to different mediums or artistic practices.

I have recently developed a website for the methodological research team in the Leeds Institute of Clinical Trials Research (LICTR). It is still young but we hope to build it over the year to include blog posts discussing our research for various audiences.

Cathy Brennan

My research is in public mental health. I currently co-lead a large programme of work (FReSH START) that is working in collaboration with people with lived experience to develop and evaluate services for people who have a history of self-harm.

Our aim is to improve the quality of life for people who self-harm. I would like to involve our lived experience group in this connection if it comes about, so the collaboration would be with the project rather than me as an individual.

I have worked with visuals as part of my research, exploring how people use images to represent their experiences of mental health. But I am open to any form of artistic practice.

Amanda MacCannell

My research focuses on how conditions such as obesity and diabetes disrupt the function of mitochondria, the tiny powerhouses that fuel our cells. I investigate how these dysfunctional mitochondria alter communication between different organs in the body, which can contribute to broader metabolic problems.

Caroline Cartlidge

Our ground-breaking pathology research explores how the gut microbiome, or collection of bacteria living in our gut, helps shape how the body finds and fights bowel cancer. Our world-leading team in Leeds uses tools like artificial intelligence to uncover how bacteria, the body's defence system and bowel cancer interact, and whether changing the microbiome could improve treatments.

We also aim to remove the stigma around bowel health and get people talking openly about their guts and bodily functions.

Adam Jones

My research explores what happens to nitrous oxide, a gas used to help patients feel calm during dental care, after it leaves the clinic. While it helps people feel safe and comfortable, it is also a powerful greenhouse gas, and most of it escapes unused into the atmosphere.

I work with patients and clinicians to imagine kinder, cleaner ways of caring for people. Our latest project, GREEN-Dentistry, brings dentistry and chemistry together to turn material inspired by cosmic dust from Venus into a filter that could capture this gas in healthcare settings, helping care for people without quietly harming the planet.

I think that the concepts of invisibility, breath, care, and unintended consequences are relevant to our nitrous oxide research and would love the opportunity to work with artists to develop a project that invites the public to pause and take notice of an unseen gas, perhaps using light/sound.

I'm interested in exploring the possibility of making an environmental impact felt rather than explained. I’m very open to being led by the artist’s ideas and to letting the collaboration shape how the research is communicated.

James Poulter

I am writing on behalf of the Leeds Centre for Disease Models. We are a group of researchers who make human organoids (small models of human organ-like structures) to study rare disorders and cancers to understand them better and to test potential new therapies.

We use a variety of methods to stain and image the models which serve as a good base to collaborate with an interested artist.

More images can be found on the .

Dominik Welke

I am a cognitive neuroscientist working with multimodal brainimaging data, including Electroencephalography (EEG), eye tracking, and bodyphysiology, with a focus on recording and analysing these different data streams together.

Since my PhD at the Max-Planck-Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Germany I work on the neuroscience of visual aesthetics, studying the interactions of individual preferences with high-level cognitive phenomena such as creativity and insight.

I have collaborated with artists (dance, cinema, visual art) and museums before, and participated in many outreach activities. In addition, I am a strong supporter of Open Science and my Postdoc here in Leeds is concerned with that. As a member of the EEGManyLabs initiative's core team and other international collaborations I work on improving the integrity of neuroimaging research and tackling the replication crisis.

Charlie Scarff

Our research focuses on uncovering how myosins, the tiny motors inside our cells and muscle tissue, are structured and how they function in health and disease. Since these molecular motors power movement and are vital for heart and muscle function, defects in them can cause serious illnesses.

We use advanced imaging, biochemical techniques, and computer modelling to understand these systems and ultimately help drive the development of better therapies. 

Lynn McKeown

The human body has an incredible ability to heal itself, even after something as small as a paper cut. My research focuses on the “first aid kits” stored inside the cells lining our blood vessels, which are released to help stop bleeding, fight infection, and seal the wound.

This is a powerful but risky system, because if these emergency supplies are released at the wrong time or place, they can create conditions that contribute to cardiovascular disease.

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Claire Smith

Inherited enamel defects affect around one in 2000 people in the UK and result in tooth enamel that fails prematurely, resulting in pain, social anxiety and the need for costly and lifelong dental treatment.

My research aims to uncover the genetic changes that cause enamel defects, to create models that recreate how cells form enamel to study what goes wrong and to develop therapies to prevent or reduce enamel defects in permanent teeth.

I really like Tracy Emin's neons, but I'm open to more inventive ideas that fit the theme better.

Fraser Macrae

I investigate thrombosis, which is when blood clots form in the wrong place and block blood vessels, leading to serious conditions like heart attacks and strokes. My work focuses on understanding how clots form, why the process sometimes goes wrong, and how we can develop treatments to prevent harmful clotting.

I’m very open to different artistic approaches, but I’m particularly interested in work that makes science feel tangible and immersive. I’d enjoy exploring themes around the hidden processes of the body, especially movement, flow, or transformation and how these can be translated into light, pattern, or sound.

I’m curious about mediums such as projection, interactive light installations, or sculptures that respond to audience movement, as well as practices that combine art with scientific data. 

• Two of my images have won in science image competitions in 2014 and 2017: 

Christina Sotiropoulou Drosopoulou

I am a Lecturer in Neuropsychology of Language, and my research interests are aligned to topics related to best practice in student education (wellbeing, belonging, transition to university), especially in relation to students with language challenges including international students and students with neurodiversity (dyslexia, ADHD, ASD).

My work bridges neuropsychological understanding, inclusive pedagogy, and cross鈥慶ultural perspectives to support equitable, sustainable practices in teaching in higher education.

Conference presentations:

• (accepted) Sotiropoulou Drosopoulou C. (2026). “Teaching Neuroscience to University Students: a novel approach in teaching and assessment”.
• Oral presentation, Focus on Pedagogy (FoP): Contemporary Teaching in a Time of Change, 24-26 June, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid – Routledge – AMPS, Madrid, Spain.
• Sotiropoulou Drosopoulou C. & Newell, L. (2025). “Awareness and Attitudes towards Dyslexia in Higher Education Academic Staff”. Oral presentation, European Society of Psychology Learning and Teaching (ESPLAT), 1-3 September, Universität Münster, Münster, Germany.

Marie Berthet Meylan

I research urban co-production, which is the practice of non-specialist who create spaces. My background is in nightlife studies. In my PhD, I looked at grassroots nightlife venues in Geneva, Switzerland, where I am from; and their transformation in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. I am also interested in counter-cultures and urban politics. 
 
 I teach on an Economics course at the Sustainability Research Institute now and, more recently, I have been researching the role of public assets (buildings and land) in community action. I am basically interested in physical urban spaces and the intersection between community action and the economy of cities. Themes/Mediums: Not necessarily a medium, but working with someone with an interest for nightlife, counter-culture and/or dance music would be amazing.

Syafiq Mat Noor

I am working on Climate-Nature-Indigenous Peoples Nexus. My research involves working with indigenous peoples around the world. In my current project we have great illustrations to be showcased. Themes/Mediums: Climate-Nature-Indigenous Peoples Nexus

Diana Peel

Britain’s 1843 M’Naghten Rule remains the legal test for insanity in Kenya. This research critically examined the contemporary use of the insanity plea in Kenya, through a thematic analysis of the 269 cases where the insanity plea was raised. The themes that have emerged demonstrate the ongoing colonial legacies, with the current application of the insanity plea reproducing the colonial era language of mental illness and reinforcing the doctrinal continuity of N’Naughten, as well as revealing the tension between legal authority and medical expertise, and the carceral outcomes of insanity findings, with people deemed to be legally insane sent to prison.

Themes/Mediums: ‘Unsound mind’ is the legal term used for people with mental illness under Kenyan law. I would therefore like to develop audio artwork: ‘un/sound’, where insanity is deconstructed through a sounds collage incorporating colonial era terms still used today, clinical jargon and narratives from court cases, to demonstrate how authority travels through language, then fading into silence, to represent the voices that don’t get heard in the justice system. The artwork would then progress to a vision of the future, using local terms for mental health delivered in Kiswahili instead of English.

Erin Dysart

Myself and Professor Louise Tracey work on a number of large scale evaluations and local context based evaluations to understand what works to enhance children's outcomes. We have recently launched the Research Centre for Early Years Education (CEYE, led by Louise) and the Research Centre for the Evaluation of Educational Intervention and Practice (EEIP, led by myself) with an aim to bring together practitioners and teachers, local authorities and academics to jointly understand what interventions work and how context shapes implementation. 

We are currently setting up websites for both centres. We have a LinkedIn page for EEIP and will soon have one for CEYE. Our most recent work has included a policy brief /policy-leeds/doc/delivering-best-start-life-strategy to support local authorities in delivering the 'Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life' strategy and a blog to support local authorities in understand what they may need to consider when selecting parenting interventions to implement within their family hubs

Markus Fraundorfer

Rivers are the living veins of the Earth’s interconnected ecosystems, giving life to forests, plants, non-human animals - and to us. But the planet is facing an unprecedented collapse of its river systems. Across the world, rivers are heavily polluted and disappearing due to a combination of climate-induced droughts, excessive human exploitation and accelerating ecosystem decline. The dire state of the UK’s river systems is a case in point. Our interdisciplinary research seeks to understand how human societies can reconnect with these vital arteries and radically transform river management and care for novel human-nature relationships. To that end, we have coined a new concept, Riverkin, through which we advocate for the rediscovery and reinvention of more sustainable relationships with rivers, no longer conceived as a vast collection of exploitable resources but rather as mutually interdependent networks of kin. 

Themes/Mediums: Sound installations are useful to project the living nature of a river and its surrounding ecosystems, making audible the sounds of the river (gentle stream, flowing, roaring cascades, splashing water, flooding, etc.) and all those beings that depend on a healthy river (trees, plants, fungi, animals and people/local communities living near the river). Light animations can “bring to light” the different states of a river and showcase how a river transforms and nurtures life from its source (in the mountains) to its mouth. Similarly, light animations are a powerful medium for visualising the decline of a river (plastic pollution, droughts, sewage, agricultural runoff) and the death of its surrounding ecosystems. The local River Aire (or any other river) can serve as a case study example for such an installation. 

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Lucy Moore

I work as a curator of our numismatic collection, and would love the opportunity to work with artists to explore the potential, potentially alongside a colleague from another discipline who brings additional expertise. My research looks at imitation in medieval coinage, as well as taking as expansive approach to how coins can tell social stories, a recent example being health and care. I have a separate research interest in olfactory heritage, so would be really interested in working with artists who have sensory practices and how that can reflect new ways of experiencing the coin collection.

•  (there's a recording of a talk I gave in 2024). I haven't written about the social side of my curatorial work, but I can send some slidedecks separately if interested.