Creative Cambridge 2024

Lawrence loves building and delivering epic unforgettable games that make folks scream and shout. Pushing the envelope where technology meets art, balancing innovation against convention, and shrewd commercial business acumen against burning creative passion. As well as building, empowering and nurturing the technical and creative teams that make these ambitions possible, as he and they continue to learn, develop and adapt in the whirlwind that is the games industry. Games aside, Lawrence enjoys travelling/exploring with his partner Siana.

Lara is a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER). Her research seeks to understand the efficacy of various communication methods and strategies for gaining traction for the mitigation and prevention of global catastrophic risks (GCRs). With a background in volcanic risk studies, Lara’s research at CSER also explores the global catastrophic risks from volcanic eruptions and specifically the systemic risks they pose to humanity.

Melanie is a creative leader and Head of Operations at the Design Age Institute, RCA where she led the inception of the Institute in 2020. She joined the RCA from the Engineering Design Centre at the University of Cambridge, holds a BA (Hons) Fine Art from UCCA, PGCE Design & Technology and MEd both from the University of Cambridge as well as an MBA certificate course from LSE.

Melanie started her career as a conceptual artist and painter. She later pursued interior design and STEAM education to ensure tangible and innovative outputs came to fruition from both academic and industry settings. She has undertaken numerous creative commissions for high profile clients, with her predominant interest in inclusive design, innovation & entrepreneurship, gender stereotypes and creative rebellion.

Melanie is the Founder of Modern Renaissance Woman and regularly contributes and collaborates in forums and roundtable discussions on creativity & cutting edge topics.

Sam is originally from deepest darkest rural Wales. He’s a keen gamer and a hobby game developer. After studying Computer Science at Robinson College and building a distributed simulation engine for his final year dissertation, he wanted to bring this project to market. In 2022, after working at various start-ups for a couple of years, he founded Planetary Processing to enable indie game developers to build multiplayer games more easily and overcome the extant barriers to entry in this sector.

Planetary Processing got funding from a syndicate of investors including Cambridge Enterprise in 2023 and since then they’ve worked to foster a new generation of multiplayer indie games.

Lucy manages the AHRC Impact Acceleration Account at the School of Arts and Humanities. She is responsible for regular callouts for funding, working with researchers to develop projects that can deliver impact beyond the University.

Prior to joining the School of Arts and Humanities in 2022, Lucy ran the Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge, Institute of Continuing Education. Lucy has experience in the arts sector, fundraising and government relations. She is also a writer, publishing both creative and critical work.

Her first degree is in English and she also has a PhD in English.

Rachel is a creative producer, fundraiser and strategist. She co-founded Collusion in 2014 after a sabbatical period spent at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory exploring what she considered to be a latent opportunity for the Cambridge area to become a leader in interdisciplinary art and tech practice.

Collusion creates and produces new public artworks – their own and other artists’ projects, that explore the creative use of technologies and the impact of emerging technology on society. Their activities support artists’ talent development and place-making to deliver dynamic, imaginative new experiences for the public.

Prior to establishing Collusion, Rachel was a Senior Manager for Arts Council England working to support growth in the arts sector and contributing to strategic place-making initiatives with non-arts partners. Rachel has a MA in Arts Management and a BA in European Philosophy & Literature.

Anna Browsted is an interdisciplinary artist working with images, objects, and people. She uses diverse methods and materials to explore how the structuring of experience can produce liveness and presence.  Her process often involves creative exchanges with community groups, researchers, academics, technologists and other artists, and is characterised by entering a state of unknowing, learning and collaboration.  Exhibitions and commissions include the British Museum, Kettle’s Yard, HOME Manchester, Cambridge Junction, the Roundhouse, University College London, Cambridge Biomedical Centre, Wellcome-MRC Stem Cell Institute, and public artworks in London, Cambridge, Suffolk, Dorset and West Sussex.

Bettina Varwig is Professor of Music History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Emmanuel College. She previously held positions at Magdalen College Oxford (2005-8) and King’s College London (2009-17). She is author of Histories of Heinrich Schütz (Cambridge, 2011) and Music in the Flesh: An Early Modern Musical Physiology (Chicago, 2023).

Dr Matt Brudenell is the Director of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU), and Principal Research Associate in the Department of Archaeology. Matt has over 20 years professional experience in the archaeological sector in Eastern England and has worked in a number of roles including field archaeologist, prehistoric pottery specialist, researcher, curatorial archaeologist, project manager, and now, Director. His main area of interest lies in the later prehistory of Eastern England, particularly that of the Cambridge Region. As Director of the CAU, Matt’s role is to provide the operational leadership of the organisation and to shape the strategic direction of the Unit in terms of its commercial endeavours and research and community engagement objectives. His responsibility is to carry forward the CAU’s legacy and reputation for excellence in regional archaeology, and to provide a bridge between University research facilities, practical fieldwork and public engagement.

Since 2018, Matt has been Artistic Director & CEO of Cambridge Junction, leading on the curation and production of theatre, dance, live art, circus, and artist development programmes including commissioning and co-producing more than 60 new projects, including Quarantine’s 12 Last Songs, Marikiscrycrycry’s Goner, Back to Back Theatre’s The Democratic Set Cambridge, Igor x Moreno’s Karrasekare, Bert & Nasi’s x ATRESBANDES’ It Don’t Worry Me, and Laura Murphy’s A Spectacle of Herself.

Since early 2024, he is a co-lead of Create Cambridge, the city’s new cultural compact. Between 2016-2018 he developed an independent producing and programming portfolio, working across artform, locating radical structures for the creation of new work. Projects included Leeds 2023 (developing the programme for Leeds’ bid to be European Capital of Culture), LIFT (producing the UK tour of Lola Arias’ Minefield), Northern Stage, Unlimited Theatre, Proto-type Theater, West Yorkshire Playhouse and independent artists Luca Rutherford and Hannah Jane Walker. He was Artistic Director of Yorkshire Festival 2016, curating a programme featuring more than 900 artists, 15 new commissions and hundreds of performances and days of exhibition across the whole of the county.

He was Head of Programme & Audiences at Warwick Arts Centre (2011-2015), where he co-produced work by artists and companies including Complicite, Forced Entertainment, and Theatre de Bouffe du Nord. Previously he was Executive Producer for Norfolk & Norwich Festival (2008-2011) and General Manager of Forced Entertainment (2003-2008). Matt has been on judging panels, advisory and curatorial groups for the Total Theatre Awards, BE Festival, and international showcases including Caravan and Edinburgh, and on the boards of Something To Aim For, Candoco Dance Company, Reckless Sleepers and Bootworks Theatre Company.

Diarmuid is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Cambridge. In this role he has responsibility for all elements of innovation, enterprise partnership, research commercialisation, investment, local and national government engagement on innovation, and innovation and place.

During his time at Cambridge, Diarmuid has led the creation of a number of initiatives to unlock innovation and offer enhanced support for translational funding and company creation, including Founders at the University of Cambridge and the Technology Investment Fund. He co-founded and continues to be an active leader in Innovate Cambridge, a highly collaborative initiative defining and delivering an inclusive innovation future for the Cambridge ecosystem.

Previously Diarmuid was Chief Innovation & Enterprise Officer of Trinity College Dublin and has held senior management roles in several university-founded start-up companies, including NTera, Xoliox, and Deerac Fluidics. Diarmuid was a Research Fellow at Princeton University. He has a PhD in Physics from the University of Sheffield and a degree in Materials Science from Trinity College Dublin.

Dr. Idrees Rasouli is an award-winning designer, academic, and researcher of products, processes, and places with a focus on innovation and transformation. As a creative leader and systems-thinker, Idrees has worked with a wide range of cities, organisations, and people, helping them solve issues of urbanisation in the 21st century, with an international profile that includes collaborations in fifteen countries, alongside research and commercial-educational partnerships with more than eighty organisations. He has led and delivered projects in a variety of industries, including technology, healthcare, transport, consumer goods, manufacturing, education, and construction throughout the UK, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

As Associate Professor and Deputy Head of Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin University, Idrees is the Chair of Art & Design and provides academic leadership and strategic direction for a diverse community of students and staff with a focus on extending the school’s purpose and offering in the 21st century, particularly around ethical, inclusive, and systemic education, research, and practice. He is the Founder and Creative Director of X-Crop, a Cambridge-based research and innovation lab focused on making cities, organisations, and people better by design.

As Head of Ecosystem Initiatives and Partnerships, Caroline leads on a number of strategic activities designed to support entrepreneurship and innovation.
Delivering the company’s convening agenda, the activity is about connecting two pivotal ecosystems – the University and the wider Cambridge ecosystem – in a proactive and strategic way that drives entrepreneurship and innovation. Cambridge Enterprise sits as a bridge between these ecosystems – intrinsically linked to both – and this activity helps to shape and support emerging entrepreneurs, spin-outs and start-ups and the companies who are forging the innovation landscape of Cambridge for the future.

Caroline works closely with the Innovate Cambridge initiative helping to create an inclusive, ambitious and broad-ranging innovation vision for the Greater Cambridge area; the University Enterprise Network which helps convene all of the University’s activities for entrepreneurship and innovation; the ideaSpace community and network bringing together Cambridge founders; and International Outreach which enables us to share our experience and expertise around the globe.

CCI is an award-winning arts and well-being charity helping to shape collaborative communities in Cambridgeshire and beyond through locally-based creative arts programmes.

We work at the intersection between education, mental health, ecology, conservation and creativity and came together as a group of artists, educators, parents and researchers in 2002 with a shared passion for how the arts can transform lives.

We are driven by a vision of an inclusive, accessible and creative society and our programmes, which foster deep connections with each other and the world just outside the door, often take place in communities dealing with the greatest inequalities.