Meet the Team
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Dr Anne Templeton, Research Group Lead
Future Leaders Fellow
University of Edinburgh
Dr Anne Templeton is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, the PI of the project, and leads the Identities and Collective Behaviour research group. Her research primarily focuses on using the social identity approach to improve crowd safety in emergencies and at mass events. Anne does this through exploring the role of social identities in communication between crowd members and safety personnel, and incorporating the role of social identities into pedestrian models of collective behaviour. Anne has either conducted research or advised on crowd safety for the UK Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, UK Sport, the Sports Grounds Safety Authority, the UK Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Local Communities, the Hajj, PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, Rail Safety and Standards Boards, Local Authority Building Control, and the Cabinet Office.
Projects: All of the exciting research shown on the website
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Dr Holly Carter
External Collaborator
UK Health Security Agency
Dr Holly Carter is a Principal Behavioural Scientist in the Behavioural Science and Insights Unit at the UK Health Security Agency. She completed a PhD in crowd behaviour during CBRN incidents and is interested in understanding the psychosocial aspects of mass emergencies and disasters. Her research explores various aspects of emergency preparedness and response, including the impact of pre-incident information on public preparedness, factors which affect the way in which members of the public respond to recommendations and interventions implemented by the authorities, and ways to improve interoperable working among emergency responders. Holly works closely with policy makers and emergency planners to inform policy and practice for the management of major incidents, particularly those involving CBRN agents. Her work has informed the development of training modules for the Fire and Rescue Service and other emergency response organisations, and she provides advice to a number of central Government working groups.
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Dr Gareth Clegg
Clinical Senior Lecturer
University of Edinburgh
Gareth leads the Resuscitation Research Group (RRG). He also works as an Honorary Consultant in Emergency Medicine at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh and Associate Medical Director for the Scottish Ambulance Service. RRG research interests include the management of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, non-technical skills in time critical resuscitation, and the national implementation of the ‘Chain of Survival’ through Scotland’s strategy for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The group is the home of the national ‘Save a Life for Scotland’ partnership and the ‘Language of Resuscitation’ social sciences collaboration.
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Professor Steve Gwynne
Industry Lead Researcher
Movement Strategies (GHD)
Professor Steve Gwynne is Research Lead at Movement Strategies (a GHD company) and Industrial Professor of Evacuation and Pedestrian Dynamics at Lund University, Sweden. Steve has nearly 25 years of experience in pedestrian dynamics, human behaviour in fire and evacuation modelling. Steve has worked for the Canadian /US governments, academic institutes (e.g. Univ. Maryland, Univ. Waterloo and Univ. Greenwich) and in consultancy (e.g. Hughes Associates, US). Steve has been involved in data collection, model development/application, procedural design, and regulatory development. Steve has worked in the aviation, maritime, rail and built environments, and has also worked in large-scale disasters (e.g. wildfire incidents).
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Sayaka Hinata
PhD Student
University of Edinburgh
Sayaka is a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh, researching effective communication approaches in emergency situation such as relationships between emergency responders and public
Project: Intergroup dynamics between first responders and citizens in evacuations -
Professor Aoife Hunt MBE
Industry Lead Researcher
Movement Strategies (GHD)
Aoife is a leading specialist in people movement and emergency planning. She has 14 years’ experience in simulating human behaviour and pedestrian dynamics and completed an award-winning PhD in evacuation modelling. Leading on high profile projects across sectors, Aoife advises on the movements of people and materials in buildings, hospitals, stadia and events, the public realm, and transport systems across the world. She leads research projects to advance the safety and security of crowded places, specialising in human behaviour in emergencies and pedestrian movement through security overlays. She has delivered more than 50 projects in pedestrian planning and drives innovative technical solutions to address complex safety and security requirements. Aoife is regularly consulted on national guidance documents. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland.
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Professor Dr Gerta Köster
External Collaborator
Munich University of Applied Sciences
Prof. Dr. Gerta Köster is a Professor of modelling and simulation at the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, Hochschule München – University of Applied Sciences. Previously she was a researcher at the Department of Mathematics, LMU München and Research and Teaching assistant at the Department of Mathematics at The Ohio State University, USA. She gained expertise in applying science and managing innovation during 13 years in industry. Her current research focus is on modelling and simulation of pedestrian dynamics, including psychological phenomena, and in harnessing explainable AI methods to harvest and analyse massive data output from simulations and observations. Professor Köster is a Project Collaborator on the fellowship and provides vital input into the development of the computer model through her expertise in modelling group processes in Vadere.
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Claire Nash
Research Assistant
University of Edinburgh
Claire is a research assistant on the means of escape project. She is also a PhD researcher at the University of Strathclyde, researching the difference in attitudes towards poverty, inequality and wealth redistribution between Scotland and England over the past 40 years
Project: MHCLG Means of escape in residential buildings -
Dr Fergus Neville
Co-Investigator
The University of St Andrews
Dr Fergus Neville’s research is focused on group processes and their pro-social and anti-social consequences. I am particularly interested in social identities, including within organisational contexts. My research covers a range of phenomena which are central to understandings of organisations and their management, including leadership and influence, normative processes, social support and toxic behaviour in groups. Much of my research has been conducted within crowds as I believe they represent a uniquely rich site in which to study processes of organisation, leadership and conflict. The core motivation running through my work is to produce outward-facing research which develops both theory and practical guidance for policy and impact.
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Kayleigh Smith
PhD Student
University of Edinburgh
Kayleigh is an MSc student at the University of Edinburgh, interested in the intergroup and intragroup processes associated with perceived risk at sporting events
Projects: DCMS Events Research Programme; Reducing COVID-19 transmission by identifying barriers and avenues to safe behaviours in high-risk workplaces
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Yunhe Tong
Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Edinburgh
Yunhe is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Edinburgh. He has an engineering and psychology background and has nearly five years of experience in crowd behaviour. His research focuses on how various attributes shape individual behaviour using well-controlled virtual reality experiments and how crowd dynamics emerge from individual interactions using mathematical and computational models.
Project: Simulating the impact of first responder communication strategies on citizen adherence in emergencies -
Tam (Sam) Vo
PhD Student
University of Edinburgh
Tam (Sam) is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. Sam’s research interests include intergroup relations, collective action and social change. Specifically, Sam is interested in the psychological mechanisms behind public support for protests and social movement. Sam’s doctoral research is funded by the University of Edinburgh’s Principal’s Career Development Scholarship
Project: Public support for social movements -
Sophia Wagner
External Collaborator
Munich University of Applied Sciences
Sophia Wagner is a PhD student at the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics at the Hochschule München – University of Applied Sciences. She focuses her research on modelling and simulating pedestrian crowds, particularly on the transmission of pathogens in moving crowds. In the summer of 2024, Sophia will participate in the first responder project as a visiting research student, where she intends to find synergies between the first responder project's objectives and her own research. If one has a way to mitigate infection risks, one still needs to communicate the necessary behaviours to the public in a way that encourages them to follow the guidance. She aims to bring in her expertise in the software Vadere, for computer-based modelling of group processes.
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Dr Natalie Van Der Wal
External Collaborator
University of Delft
Dr. Natalie Van der Wal is an Associate Professor in System Engineering and Simulation at Delft University of Technology. Previously she worked as a Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow at Leeds University Business School and as an Assistant Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Dr. van der Wal is an expert in agent-based modelling and simulation and cognitive and social psychology. She aims to improve evacuations with her interdisciplinary research, to ultimately save lives. Dr. Van der Wal has co-authored over 40 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications in the areas of agent-based modelling, evacuation science, resilience research, health and well-being. She has won the best paper award at the International Conference of Computational Collective Intelligence 2017 for her evacuation model including socio-cultural factors, an EU H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship in 2018 for evacuation research, and was Work Package Leader of EU H2020 project IMPACT from 2015-2018.
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Dr Hui Xie
Industry Researcher
Movement Strategies (GHD)
Dr. Hui Xie is an advisor at Movement Strategies (a GHD company). He has recently worked on several research and consulting projects, ranging from building fire safety, large-scale disasters (wildfires) to human behaviour at major events. Before he joined the GHD Advisory Consulting team in 2021, he worked as a researcher at the Fire Safety Engineering Group of the University of Greenwich. He has 10 years of experience in evacuation modelling and human behaviour study. He has worked on a variety of large-scale research projects and industrial projects. His activities include designing and conducting experimental trials, data collection and analysis, and modelling to better understand human behaviour in evacuation in built environment. His PhD addressed wayfinding behaviour in an emergency situation and the design of smart signage systems. He has over 15 peer-reviewed publications.
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Anezka Beamish Leskovcova
Project Administrator
University of Edinburgh
Anezka has over 13 years experience in various roles in the University of Edinburgh. She recently joined the group to manage the core administrative procedures for the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship project
Project: UKRI FLF Project - ‘Simulating the impact of first responder communication strategies on citizen adherence in emergencies’ -
Em Bolton
Research Assistant
University of Edinburgh
Em Bolton is a MSc student in the Social Psychology Programme at the University of Edinburgh. After receiving her undergraduate degree in Forensic Psychology, she moved focus to social psychology with particular interest in gender, power, and dangerous situations. She has 3+ years’ experience working as a research assistant within an academic environment and has conducted research both virtually and in person. Em joined the team as a research assistant during the summer of 2024, where she is assisting with recruitment, preparation of study materials and set up, as well as execution of experiments with participants.
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Julie Brattsti
Research Assistant
University of Edinburgh
Julie Brattsti is a MSc student in the Social Psychology Programme at the University of Edinburgh. She has previously done research within social psychology, specifically on partner preferences and gender equality. Julie joined the team as a research assistant during the summer of 2024, where she is assisting with recruitment, preparation of study materials and set up, as well as execution of experiments with participants.
Our brilliant alumni
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Chiara Addison, Research Assistant
Chiara is a research assistant at the University of Edinburgh, who focuses on research interventions to promote safe behaviour in healthcare settings
Project: ScotGov reducing COVID-19 transmission by identifying barriers and avenues to safe behaviours in high-risk workplaces -
Waleed Alhajri, PhD Student
Waleed is a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh researching the role of group processes and social norms in risk-taking at mass gatherings
Project: The role of perceived norms on risk taking at mass gatherings -
Rebecca Blaikie, Project Student
Rebecca is a final year undergraduate Cognitive Science student at the University of Edinburgh, researching the role of group processes and social norms underlying adherence to COVID-19 guidelines at pilot crowd events.
Project: DCMS Events Research Programme
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Nandita Dhanda, Research Assistant
Nandita is a research assistant exploring barriers to safe evecuations. She is also a recent masters graduate in Psychological Research from the University of Edinburgh with interest in researching intergroup relations and collective action (primarily in religious and political contexts)
Project: Understanding barriers to safe evacuation in environmental emergencies -
Oliver Ellis, Research Assistant
Oliver earned an MA (Hons) in Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, with a dissertation focusing on collective experiences at trans pride events
Project: DCMS Events Research Programme
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Jennifer Dang Guay, Research Assistant
Jennifer is studying a MSc in Statistics and Data Science at KU Leuven after graduating from MSc Psychological Research at the University of Edinburgh. She is interested in group processes and social norms in promoting pro-social behaviours through interventions
Projects: DCMS Events Research Programme; Promoting bystander CPR -
Klara Jurstakova, Research Assistant
Klara is a research assistant on the DCMS Events Research Programme. She is also a PhD researcher at Canterbury Christ Church University researching collective action in ‘communist’ Czechoslovakia and leadership
Project: DCMS Events Research Programme -
Layla Lewis, Project Student
Layla is a fourth year honours student at the University of Edinburgh, researching group processes in evacuations of high-rise buildings in the UK
Project: MHCLG Means of escape in residential buildings -
Yizhen (Lisa) Li, Project Student
Yizhen (Lisa) is an undergraduate student researcher at the University of Edinburgh, researching group process in evacuations of high-rise buildings in the UK. Her main research interests are group dynamics and collective behaviours
Project: MHCLG Means of escape in residential buildings -
Guan Mao, Research Assistant
Guan is a research assistant on the DCMS Events Research Programme. He is also a research assistant at the University of Sussex, conducting research into behavioural issues around Covid-19 including mutual aid groups, vaccination passports, and large-scale events
Project: DCMS Events Research Programme -
Nuria Martinez Tevar, Research Assistant
Nuria is a PhD researcher at Canterbury Christ Church University, exploring the role of group processes in sustaining collective action towards socio-political change
Project: DCMS Events Research Programme -
Alice Mason, Project Student
Alice is an undergraduate student at the University of Edinburgh, currently working on a dissertation project about utilising the social identity approach to improve responses to cyclone evacuation warnings in Bangladesh
Project: Understanding public responses to cyclone evacuation warnings in Bangladesh -
Eilidh McNaughton, Project Student
Eilidh is an undergraduate psychology student at the University of Edinburgh, researching the role of religious beliefs and information level on public responses to natural disasters in Bangladesh
Project: Understanding public responses to cyclone evacuation warnings in Bangladesh -
Jenny Overend, Project Student
Jenny is a 4th year undergraduate Psychology student at the University of Edinburgh, currently undertaking her dissertation in the role of group processes and how they influence public adherence to COVID-19 guidance.
Project: DCMS Events Research Programme -
Jean Skelton, Research Assistant
Jean is a research assistant on the ScotGov Reducing COVID-19 project. She is also a research assistant with the Resuscitation Research Group, University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on the barriers and facilitators to COVID-safe behaviours in healthcare settings and the impact of social norms on attitudes towards bystander CPR
Projects: Reducing COVID-19 transmission in healthcare settings by identifying barriers and avenues to safe behaviours in high-risk workplaces; Promoting bystander CPR -
Eve Stanley, Research Assistant
Eve is a research assistant at the University of Edinburgh with a keen interest in identity, relationships, and health and well-being
Project: Reducing COVID-19 transmission by identifying barriers and avenues to safe behaviours in high-risk workplaces
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Dr Selin Tekin, Postdoctoral Researcher
Selin is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of St Andrews. Her research focuses on understanding how working-class and minority ethnic groups form post-disaster justice campaigns overcome social and systemic injustices
Projects: Understanding the dynamics between police and environmental protestors around COP26; The social psychology of community organizing following the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017 -
Yasemin Ulusahin, Research Assistant
Yasemin is a research assistant on the DCMS Events Research Programme. She is also a PhD candidate at the University of St Andrews, whose research focuses on the group-processes involved in mobilization and effective leadership that attracts people to populism
Project: DCMS Events Research Programme -
Dr Kirsty Wiseman-Gregg, Postdoctoral Researcher
Kirsty is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh, specialising in research interventions to promote safe behaviour in healthcare settings
Project: Reducing COVID-19 transmission by identifying barriers and avenues to safe behaviours in high-risk workplaces