UNPICK is coordinated by a multi-disciplinary team led by the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, with expertise including social science, human geography, forest science and social psychology.

 Professor Clive Potter

Professor in Environmental Policy at the Centre for Environment Policy, Imperial College London
Principal Investigator
c.potter@imperial.ac.uk

Clive Potter is an environmental social scientist with research interests in the fields of plant biosecurity, rural land use change and environmental governance. He has 25 years' experience as a researcher and policy advocate and has published widely on contemporary rural restructuring and its environmental implications in industrialized countries. Recent work has focussed on tree disease outbreaks and the public policy response to the growing threats they pose to ecosystem services and rural landscapes. Prior to UNPICK, Clive has led several interdisciplinary projects aimed at understanding stakeholder and public engagement with disease outbreaks and their prevention and management. He has advised Defra on its response to Phytophthora ramorum and Oak Processionary Moth and in 2013 he was a member of the UK Government's Expert Taskforce on Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity.

Professor Julie Barnett

Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Bath
j.c.barnett@bath.ac.uk

Julie Barnett, Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Bath is a social psychologist with particular interest and expertise in risk appreciation, risk communication, the development of health technologies, the maintenance and change of behaviour, public engagement processes and policy development. As well as the UNPICK project, Julie's other current funded work is exploring trust and empathy and the role of digital interventions (ESRC) , the information preferences of people with food allergy and food intolerance (FSA) and a project exploring the way in which big data might contribute evidence to inform policy decisions in local authorities (Cabinet Office and B&NES).  Julie is also Director of Studies for the Masters in Health Psychology at University of Bath

Professor Chris Quine

Head of Centre for Ecosystems, Society and Biosecurity, Forest Research
chris.quine@forestry.gsi.gov.uk

Professor Chris Quine is Head of Centre for Ecosystems, Society and Biosecurity and Head of Station at the Forest Research’s Northern Research Station (NRS); he is a member of the Forest Research Executive Board, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters, a trustee of the Scottish Forestry Trust, and a member of SNH’s Expert Panel to the Scientific Advisory Committee.  He is currently project director for Defra project TH011 ‘Social and economic analyses supporting the implementation of the GB Dothistroma Needle Blight Strategy’ and has recently been Co-ordinating Lead Author for the Woodlands chapter and member of the Expert Panel for the UK National Ecosystem Assessment; provided expert advice on woodland management to the Independent Panel on Forestry for England; and was Principal Investigator of an interdisciplinary research project ‘Assessing and communicating animal disease risks to countryside users’ funded by the Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme.  He has published widely in academic journals, books and Forestry Commission publications.  His first degree was in geography, followed by an MSc in forestry, and after a period working in forest management he joined Forest Research and undertook a part-time PhD in forest ecology at Edinburgh University. He was awarded an honorary professorship by Stirling University in September 2014.

Professor John Mumford

Professor of Natural Resource Management at the Centre for Environmental
Policy, Imperial College London
j.mumford@imperial.ac.uk

Professor John Mumford is an entomologist who has worked extensively on plant health risk assessment, regulation and policy in Europe. He has experience of area-wide management of forest pests in Malaysia and Portugal. Much of his work on the implementation of field pest management has involved encouraging uptake of control measures by large numbers of individuals to achieve greater efficiency.  John Mumford’s research projects have often dealt with the causes of ecological uncertainty and priorities for meeting divergent stakeholder interests in regional management plans, both in relation to plant health and to European fisheries. He leads work packages on several EC projects which are currently addressing plant health risks that pose a threat to Europe from the great expansion in trade from China in the past decade.

Dr Julie Urquhart

Research Associate at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London
j.urquhart@imperial.ac.uk

Julie Urquhart is a rural geographer and social scientist with a research interest in exploring human-environment relationships in order to understand how people relate to and value nature and how this can inform natural resource management and rural policy. She is interested in developing innovative research methodologies, including the use of visual methods, for revealing cultural values, public perceptions and engagement with nature. Recent work has involved place-based approaches for understanding cultural ecosystem services in the context of small-scale fisheries and investigating the potential for enhanced delivery of public benefits in private woodland and forests. Prior to working on UNPICK, Julie was co-investigator on a €4.6 million ERDF cofinanced Interreg IVA project GIFS, the Geography of Inshore Fishing and Sustainability.

Dr John Fellenor

Research Associate in the Department of Psychology, University of Bath
j.fellenor@bath.ac.uk

John Fellenor has a particular interests in psychosocial methodologies, complexity and Actor Network Theory. His PhD involved developing a novel psychosocial methodology with which to explore the experience of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and its relation to material objects, spaces and places. He is currently engaged with the UNPICK project and working with Professor Julie Barnett to explore and understand the public perception of risk in relation to specific tree pathogens. John’s present focus is developing a social media analysis of risk perception and how to combine this with case studies and contextualised experiences of tree health by different stakeholder groups and publics.