Invited Speakers

Emily Akkermans, Royal Museums Greenwich

Curator of Time at Royal Museums Greenwich, responsible for managing, researching and interpreting our wonderful timekeeping collections. I have a background in practical clock restorations, metals conservation and completed my PhD thesis examining the use of marine chronometers in the Royal Navy.

Dr Katy Clough, Queen Mary University of London

Katy Clough is a senior lecturer and Ernest Rutherford Fellow in the school of mathematical sciences at Queen Mary University of London. She studies systems with strong dynamical gravity using numerical simulations, including black holes and the early universe.

Katy’s first degree was in engineering and her degree in physics was obtained from the Open University whilst working as a chartered accountant. After her PhD at King’s College London, she worked at the Georg August University of Goettingen in Germany and at the University of Oxford in postdoctoral positions before moving to Queen Mary.

Katy is one of the PIs of the international Simon’s Collaboration on Black Holes and Strong Gravity. In 2022 she was the recipient of the James Clerk Maxwell Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics, given for "exceptional early-career contributions to theoretical (including mathematical and computational) physics.

Dr Matt Farr, University of Cambridge

Dr Matt Farr is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge. His research focuses on the nature of time and causation, particularly the directionality of time, the role of causality in physics, and the psychology of time and causation. Matt’s research has been published in leading journals in philosophy, physics and psychology, and he is currently writing a book on the philosophy and physics of time direction. Matt received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Bristol, and has held research fellowships at the University of Sydney and University of Queensland.

Helen Margolis, National Physical Laboratory (NPL)

Helen Margolis is the Head of Science for the Time & Frequency department at the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and an NPL Senior Fellow in Optical Frequency Standards and Metrology. Her research interests in next-generation optical clocks are part of a wider international effort towards a redefinition of the SI unit of time, the second, and she has coordinated two European projects working towards this goal: International Timescales with Optical Clocks (ITOC) and Robust Optical Clocks for International Timescales (ROCIT).

Helen represents NPL and the UK on various international committees, including the Consultative Committee for Time and Frequency (CCTF) and several of its working groups. She has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford since 2017 and was awarded an MBE in 2019 for her services to metrology. In 2023 she was awarded the I I Rabi Award by the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control Society, and also received the 2023 European Frequency and Time Award.

Prof. Vlatko Vedral, University of Oxford

Vlatko Vedral is a professor of physics at the University of Oxford, known for both his theoretical and experimental work on quantum information, including developing a novel way of quantifying entanglement and applying it to macroscopic physical systems. When not studying the fundamental nature of reality, he enjoys drawing, wakeboarding and playing his electric guitar very loudly. He is the author of the 2010 book Decoding Reality, as well as the recently published “Portals to a New Reality”.