Siân enjoyed a five-star run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2023 with her pole dancing comedy hour ‘Pole Yourself Together!’, asking whether hanging off a stick can cure your existential dread. In 2024, Siân served as MC for QED, the UK’s biggest grassroots celebration of science, reason and critical thinking, held in Manchester.

Jim Al-Khalili is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Surrey and one of Britain’s leading science communicators. He has written numerous books that have been translated into twenty-six languages, among them The Joy of Science and The World According to Physics. A fellow of the Royal Society, he is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries and is best-known in the UK for his long-running BBC Radio program, The Life Scientific.

Phil Armstrong is a board member of the Merseyside Skeptics Society and part of the organising team for ESC Liverpool. He is a software developer and father of two boys.

Susannah Crockford is a lecturer in anthropology, specialising in environmental and medical anthropology and the anthropology of religion. Her first book, Ripples of the Universe: Spirituality in Sedona, Arizona, was published in May 2021 by the University of Chicago Press. Her second book, A Perturbed System: Religion and Climate Change at the End of a World, was published in July 2026 by the same publisher.

Professor Sheena Cruickshank is an immunologist based at the University of Manchester. Her research is centred on understanding how the immune interacts with beneficial things like the microbiome versus threats such as infectious agents or harmful pollutants. She is also an award-winning science communicator who involves diverse communities in her research and has worked with groups such as Independent SAGE to communicate the risks of infections and benefits of vaccination.

Dr Chantal Den Daas leads the Health Psychology group at the University of Aberdeen. Her work spans social, behavioural, and health psychology, with a focus on understanding and changing health behaviours in infection and disease prevention, with a particular focus on sexual health. Her research brings together theory-driven behavioural science and real-world public health challenges, including the design and evaluation of messaging interventions to improve public health and reduce inequalities. She has a particular interest in how people make decisions in contexts of risk or temptation, and how psychological processes such as habits and impulsivity shape behaviour. More recently, her work has explored the role of communication and misinformation in shaping health behaviours, and how evidence-based messaging can be used to support healthier choices.

Dr Kathryn Ford is an Evolutionary Behavioural Scientist whose research focuses on religious and spiritual beliefs, seeking to understand why religious and spiritual beliefs are such a widespread feature of human culture. She has used both data driven research and anthropological approaches to the study of beliefs, behavior, and identity, recently conducting long-term fieldwork in Glastonbury UK. Kat has been a member of the Merseyside Skeptics Society since 2012 and is a founding member of Skeptics in the Pub Online.

Caradoc Gethin (also known as Chad) has been in education for the entirety of this century. Although, on paper, he is a science specialist, he is passionate about all learning and has a particular interest in finding ways to prevent misinformation, disinformation and harmful content from spreading amongst those most vulnerable: children.

John Hamilton is a physics teacher and associate assistant head at London Academy of Excellence, a state funded sixth form in Newham, East London which this year ranked third in the county for A-Level results in The Times league tables. He believes applying and promoting critical thinking is important in education, for both students and in the professional development of teachers.

Dr Alice Howarth is cancer cell biologist, science communicator, podcaster and writer. She has been part of the skeptical community for more than a decade, and is co-host of Skeptics with a K, vice president of the Merseyside Skeptics Society, deputy editor of The Skeptic Magazine, co-organiser of the QED conference and co-founder of Skeptics in the Pub Online. Alice has delivered lectures on the topics of science and skepticism all over the world, written for publications such as The Guardian, and worked on numerous investigations into pseudoscientific and wellness claims. In her day job, Alice is an open research advocate for The University of Sheffield and the UK Reproducibility Network, working to make research available beyond academia. She believes that accessibility and inclusivity is crucial to how we engage with science and critical thinking.

Jonathan Jarry is a science communicator with McGill University’s Office for Science and Society (OSS), dedicated to separating sense from nonsense on the scientific stage. He has a Master’s degree in molecular biology and he brings his experience in cancer research, human genetics, rehabilitation research, and forensic biology to the work he does for the public. He talks about science most Fridays on CTV Montreal News and is regularly interviewed in both English- and French-language media.

Ria Lina is a multi-award-winning comedian, actress, and writer. A third-culture kid, Ria was born to a Filipino mother and German father and was raised in the UK and the Netherlands. Her credits include appearances on Live At The Apollo (BBC), Have I Got News For You (BBC), QI (BBC), Mock The Week (BBC), The Last Leg (Channel 4) and a regular on Times Radio in the UK. Ria has also been frequently featured on The News Quiz (Radio 4), The Now Show (Radio 4), Late Night Mash (Dave), and was the star of Lovestruck High (Amazon Prime). Ria won Celebrity Mastermind (BBC), with Rosalind Franklin as her specialist subject. She is the cohost of Yesterday, Today & The Day Before (Comedy Central), cohost of Richard Hammond’s Brain Reaction (Comedy Central) and has been seen on occasion in Countdown’s Dictionary Corner (Channel 4).

Ria also holds a BSc in Experimental Pathology, an MSc in Forensic Science, and a PhD in Virology. She has taken six shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with her work tackling topics such as autism, motherhood, political correctness, feminism and racial identity.

Dr Onyeka Nubia is a pioneering and internationally recognised historian, writer and presenter. His books include England’s Other Countrymen: Black Tudor Society and Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England: Their Presence Status and Origins. He is the leading historian on the status and origins of Africans in pre-colonial England from antiquity to 1603. He has helped us to an entirely new perspective on otherness, colonialism, imperialism and the Black British contribution to World Wars I and II.

Lily O’Farrell is a writer, cartoonist and feminist commentator. Her documentary podcast series, No Worries If Not! has just finished its fourth season, exploring the intersection of culture, misinformation, the Internet, and feminism. Since 2018, she has been publishing funny, educational cartoons about misogyny, feminism, and Internet culture, building an audience of more than 400k online followers, with translations into Vietnamese, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic and several other languages. She has collaborated with organisations including the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, Refuge, the End Violence Against Women Coalition and Good Law Project, helping to turn their campaigns into accessible, engaging cartoons. In 2021, she published her first book, Kyle Theory, and has appeared in and written for The i, Metro, Stylist, Glamour, The Sunday Times, The Week, and BBC Radio 4s Woman’s Hour.

Christina Pagel is professor of operational research at University College London, using mathematical tools to support delivery of health services. Her research includes understanding and communicating outcomes in congenital heart disease; improving intensive care services for children and adults; using systems methods to improve services for children with complex health needs across health, social care and education. Since January 2025, she has been tracking authoritarian actions of the Trump administration (trumptractiontracker.info) and writing about their implications for the US and internationally. She is President Elect of the UK Operational Research Society, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health.

Journalist, author, university lecturer, and science communicator, Massimo Polidoro is widely regarded as one of the most prominent investigators of mysteries and unusual phenomena, as well as one of the most well-known and respected science communicators in Italy. He began his career as James Randi’s apprentice, is a Research Fellow at the Center for Inquiry and a columnist for ‘The Skeptical Inquirer’. A longtime collaborator of Piero Angela (the Italian equivalent of David Attenborough), with whom he co-founded CICAP (the Italian skeptics group), he is a regular presence on television. He teaches ‘Science Communication’ at the Politecnic in Milano and to PhD students at the University of Padua, and has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, where he was invited by prof. Naomi Oreskes. He regularly tours with his lectures and theatrical performances, and reaches over one million people each month on his YouTube channel. He is also the author of numerous successful podcasts and has written over 70 books. The International Astronomical Union named an asteroid (‘193818 Polidoro’) in his honor for ‘his contribution to science communication and the promotion of critical thinking.

James Shakeshaft is a producer and co-host of Loremen, a podcast about local legends and obscure curiosities from days of yore, featuring forgotten folklore from Britain’s past. Once a comedy actor and stand up you could spot him in a self-penned episode of Channel 4's Comedy Lab and a thing called "The Looky Likey Show".

Dr Yvonne Skipper is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology based in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. She has published more than 30 articles and book chapters on educational psychology. She has expertise in working with partner organisations such as local education authorities, schools and charities to co-create interventions to improve educational outcomes.

She is an award-winning educator, having been runner up in the UK Higher Education Psychology Teacher of the Year and winner of the Outreach Academic of the Year award. She has also received recognition of the impact of her research through an award for Mobilising Research into Action from Emerald International. She is passionate about knowledge exchange, engagement and outreach.

Mike Wendling is a journalist who specialises in covering the US and international far-right, conspiracy theories and fringe movements and American politics. A former editor of BBC Trending and co-founder of the BBC’s disinformation unit, he is the author of two books – Alt-Right: From 4chan to the White House and Day of Reckoning: How the Far-Right Declared War on Democracy. His current blog is available on Substack.

Andy Wilson is part of the organising team for ESC 2026, a founding board member of the QED conference, and until 2025 was host of the popular skeptical podcast InKredulous. He was an early board member of the Merseyside Skeptics Society and in 2010 was one of the driving forces behind the 10:23 Campaign, and he took the role of emcee at QED 2012.

Andy Zaltzman is a stand-up comedian, broadcaster, cricket statistician and author who has firmly established himself in the vanguard of British comedy with his unique brand of political satire. He is the chair of BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, hosts global hit satirical podcast The Bugle, and was crowned the series 18 champion of Channel 4’s Taskmaster, also appearing on the Champion of Champions Special in 2025. Andy’s other TV appearances include John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show (Comedy Central), 8 Out of 10 Cats (Channel 4) and Unspun with Matt Forde (Dave). Andy has been a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe since his nomination for Best Newcomer in 2001, building his reputation as one of the most inventive satirists in the world. In addition to his comedy work, Andy is well known as the BBC’s cricket statistician on Test Match Special. He commentated the BBC’s coverage of the World Cup and has covered sport for The Guardian. Following a sell-out 2024/2025 national run, Andy extended his hit tour, The Zaltgeist, into 2026 in both the UK and Australia.