Sam Illingworth
sam illingworth

Dr Sam Illingworth MPhys PhD PgCert MA PFHEA

Associate Professor

Biography

As an Associate Professor in the Department of Learning and Teaching Enhancement (DLTE), I bring internationally recognised expertise in higher education, interdisciplinary studies, and science communication. My leadership role encompasses leading pedagogical innovation across the University, through both DLTE and the Centre for Higher Education Research.

My research integrates poetry and generative AI into creative pedagogies, aiming to enhance staff and student well-being and foster a sense of belonging. This approach has proven effective in cultivating meaningful dialogues across diverse groups and amplifying the voices of marginalised communities. Highlighted works include studies that demonstrate the impact of interdisciplinary approaches to learning and teaching.

With over 70 peer-reviewed publications, I have an h-index of 21, an i10-index of 41, and a total citation count of 1,882 (source: Google Scholar). These metrics attest to my sustained excellence in pedagogic innovation and science communication. I have been successful in over £400,000 in funding from prestigious organisations such as AHRC, The Royal Society, Arts Council England, and The Leverhulme Trust, enabling significant projects that bridge disciplinary gaps and engage with societal challenges.

In terms of academic leadership, I have directed several undergraduate and postgraduate programmes globally, fostering a rich learning environment that encourages academic and professional growth. I hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice and an MA in Higher Education and am a Principal Fellow of Advance HE (PFHEA).

My mentorship extends to supervising two current PhD candidates, with three completed supervisions and six external examiner appointments, underscoring my commitment to nurturing the next generation of scholars.

Beyond academia, I am an award-winning poet, games designer, and science communicator. My research has also generated extensive local, national, and international media attention, including features on BBC, NPR, Scientific American, Buzzfeed, and Times Higher Education. These engagements have not only spread awareness of my research but also highlighted the intersection of science and art in public discourse.

My contributions to the cultural landscape include writing for radio and stage, with productions performed by organisations including The Royal Shakespeare Company. Additionally, my poetry has resonated with audiences worldwide, including at prestigious events like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Green Man music festival.

Through my diverse pursuits, I strive to blur the boundaries between academic research, pedagogical innovation, and creative expression, aiming to inspire, educate, and engage communities both within and beyond the academic sphere.

News

Events

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Education Committee
  • Expert Witness for Westminster Education Forum on Next Steps for AI in Education
  • Expert Witness for European Commission on the impact of AI on scientific publishing and communications
  • Member of SRHE's Research and Development Committee
  • Chair of iCRAG's Education and Public Engagement Advisory Committee
  • Member of European Geoscience Union's Outreach Committee
  • Elected Union-level Early Career Scientist representative for European Geosciences Union
  • Member of the Institute of Physics' Outreach Committee

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Panel Chair: SRHE International Conference 2023, Online, December 2023
  • Conference Organiser: The Gathering, Edinburgh, June 2023
  • Conference Organiser: The Gathering, Edinburgh, June 2022
  • Panel Convener and Chair: European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Online, April 2022
  • Panel Convener and Chair: European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Online, April 2021
  • Conference Organiser: ENU Learning & Teaching Conference, Online, June 2021
  • Panel Convener and Chair: European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Online, April 2020
  • Panel Convener and Chair: European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, April 2019
  • Conference Organiser: Science in Public, Manchester, July 2019
  • Panel Convener and Chair: European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, April 2018
  • Panel Convener and Chair: American Geophysical Union Fall Assembly, New Orleans, December 2017
  • Panel Convener and Chair: European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, April 2017
  • Conference Organiser: Multiplatform, Manchester, June 2017

 

Editorial Activity

  • Editor of Special Issue: Earth System Science Data
  • Editorial Board Member: Consilience
  • Editorial Board Member (Chief Executive Editor): Geoscience Communciation
  • Editor of Special Issue: Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
  • Editor of Special Issue: Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences
  • Editor of Special Issue: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • LSE HE Blog Fellow
  • Katia and Maurice Krafft Award
  • Principal Fellow of Advance HE (PFHEA)
  • Elected Member of Young Academy of Scotland
  • Senior Fellow of Advance HE (SFHEA)
  • Fellow of Advance HE (FHEA)

 

Grant Funding Panel Member

  • Invited member of AHRC Moderation Panel
  • Invited Member of Royal Society of Edinburgh's Research Awards Sub-Committee
  • Chair of Grant Funding Panel for Discover Programme for Science Foundation Ireland
  • Invited Member of Oversight Panel for Science Foundation Ireland's Research Centres
  • Invited Member of Grant Funding Panel for Discover Programme for Science Foundation Ireland

 

Grant Reviewer

  • Swiss National Science Foundation

 

Invited Speaker

  • Invited Speaker: The Royal Astronomical Society, Online, 23/01/2024
  • Invited Speaker: European Geosciences Union, Online, 11/03/2024
  • Seminar Speaker: Liverpool John Moore University, Online, 12/03/2024
  • Seminar Speaker: Wellesley College, Online, 13/10/2023
  • Panel Discussion: Advance HE - NTFS Roadshow, Online, 12/12/2023
  • Seminar Speaker: Wellesley College Online, 14/10/2022
  • Seminar Speaker: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Online, 24/05/2022
  • Seminar Speaker: Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, Online, 18/05/2022
  • Seminar Speaker: Liverpool John Moore University, Online, 29/03/2022
  • Seminar Speaker: The University of Edinburgh, Online, 05/04/2022
  • Seminar Speaker: Universität Stuttgart, Online, 12/11/2021
  • Seminar Speaker: Norwegian Research School for Dynamics and Evolution of Earth and Planets (DEEP), Online, 09/11/2021
  • Seminar Speaker: Liverpool John Moore University, Online, 27/07/2021
  • Seminar Speaker: The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Alumni Association, Online, 15/11/2021
  • Seminar Speaker: Making Decarbonisation Fair, the third ENGAGER network conference , Online, 04/03/2021
  • Seminar Speaker: Swedish Research Council, Online, 19/03/2021
  • Seminar Speaker: EURAXESS ASEAN, Online, 30/03/2021
  • Seminar Speaker: Unconventional Hydrocarbons in the UK Energy System (UKUH), Online, 06/07/2021
  • Seminar Speaker: The University of Manchester, Online, 23/07/2020
  • Seminar Speaker: Policy Connect, Online, 08/06/2020
  • Seminar Speaker: The University of the West of Scotland, Online, 07/07/2020
  • Seminar Speaker: Falling Walls, Online, 27/04/2020
  • Seminar Speaker: the University of Leeds, Online, 26/06/2020
  • Seminar Speaker: Australian Science Communicators, Online, 24/07/2020
  • Seminar Speaker: Institute of Physics, Online, 16/06/2020
  • Seminar Speaker: Inspiring Australia, Online, 14/05/2020
  • Keynote Speaker: European Science Engagement Association, Vienna, 09/10/05/2019

 

Media Activity

  • Radio Feature: All things considered; NPR, 16/04/2024
  • Radio Feature: Drivetime, Current Affairs, BBC Radio Scotland, 21/03/2023
  • Radio Feature: Mornings with Stephen Jardine, Current Affairs, BBC Radio Scotland, 11/05/2023
  • Website Article: Interview, THINK, 27/11/2023
  • Radio Feature: The Afternoon Show, Current Affairs, BBC Radio Scotland, 09/02/2022
  • Radio Feature: Falling Stars, Documentary, BBC Radio 4, 29/11/2022
  • Radio Feature: BBC Inside Science, Documentary, BBC Radio 4, 21/04/2022
  • Radio Feature: Seriously, Documentary, BBC Radio 4, 09/12/2022
  • Radio Feature: Words and Music, Documentary, BBC Radio 3, 07/08/2022
  • Radio Feature: Free Thinking, Documentary, BBC Radio 3, 22/01/2020

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Member of SRHE
  • Member of European Geosciences Union

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • Public Workshop for The Binks Hub, ‘Poetry and Research’, Edinburgh (March 2024)
  • Public Talk and Workshop, ‘RSE Curious: Exploring the climate crisis through poetry’, The Royal Society of Edinburgh (September 2023)
  • Poetry Workshop for Royal Mile Primary School in Collaboration with the Scottish Poetry Library as part of National Poetry Day (October 2023)
  • Public Talk, ‘Deep-sea Plastics’, The Deep-sea Podcast (February 2022)
  • Public Talk and Workshop, ‘Poetry in Practice’, Heriot-Watt University (September 2022)
  • Public Talk and Workshop, ‘RSE Curious: The Poetry of Science’, The Royal Society of Edinburgh (August 2022)
  • Public Talk, ‘Creative Climate Communications’, The Sustainability Report Podcast (January 2022)
  • Public Talk ‘Science & Poetry’, La Ninfa Eco Podcast (May 2021)
  • Public Workshop ‘Rhyme Your Research – Discover the joys of turning research into poetry’, The University of Liverpool (May 2021)
  • Public Talk ‘How Social Media can Benefit your Research’, Oceanworks (April 2020)
  • Public Talk ‘The Poetry of Science’, Science Exchange (May 2020)
  • Public Talk ‘A Sonnet to Science,’ Blackwell’s Manchester (May 2020)
  • Public Talk ‘Why Engage with the AHRC', The University of Manchester (January 2020)
  • STEM Ambassador

 

Research Degree External Examining

  • External Examiner for PhD viva voce of Dr. Achintya Rao, University of West of England
  • External Examiner for PhD of Dr. Alba Suarez Garcia, University of Otago
  • External Examiner for PhD viva voce of Dr. Lei Qiu, The University of Edinburgh
  • External Examiner for PhD viva voce of Dr. Gary Kerr, University of Salford
  • External Examiner for PhD viva voce of Dr. Kaewnapha Phothi, The University of Edinburgh

 

Reviewing

  • Arts and Health (Reviewer)
  • Weather, Climate, and Society (Reviewer)
  • Science Communication (Reviewer)
  • Conservation Biology (Reviewer)
  • Research for All (Reviewer)
  • Public Understanding of Science (Reviewer)
  • Geoscience Communication (Reviewer)
  • Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (Reviewer)
  • JCOM, Journal of Science Communication (Reviewer)
  • Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology (Reviewer)
  • Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (Reviewer)
  • Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Reviewer)
  • Sensors (Reviewer)

 

Date


87 results

Interactive and Interdisciplinary Student Work: A Facilitative Methodology to Encourage Lifelong Learning

Journal Article
Blake, J., & Illingworth, S. (2015)
Interactive and Interdisciplinary Student Work: A Facilitative Methodology to Encourage Lifelong Learning. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 17(2), 108-118. https://doi.org/10.5456/WPLL.17.2SI.107
In order to support and facilitate continuous learning and a growth mindset, it is essential that students be exposed to learning opportunities that explicitly allow them to a...

Developing key skills as a science communicator: Case studies of two scientist-led outreach programmes

Journal Article
Illingworth, S. M., & Roop, H. A. (2015)
Developing key skills as a science communicator: Case studies of two scientist-led outreach programmes. Geosciences, 5(1), 2-14. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences5010002
Outreach by scientific researchers in school classrooms often results in widespread benefit for learners, classroom teachers and researchers. This paper presents a considerati...

Crowdsourcing for climate and atmospheric sciences: Current status and future potential

Journal Article
Muller, C., Chapman, L., Johnston, S., Kidd, C., Illingworth, S., Foody, G., …Leigh, R. (2015)
Crowdsourcing for climate and atmospheric sciences: Current status and future potential. International Journal of Climatology, 35(11), 3185-3203. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4210
Crowdsourcing is traditionally defined as obtaining data or information by enlisting the services of a (potentially large) number of people. However, due to recent innovations...

Atmospheric composition and thermodynamic retrievals from the ARIES airborne TIR-FTS system--Part 2: Validation and results from aircraft campaigns

Journal Article
Allen, G., Illingworth, S., O'Shea, S., Newman, S., Vance, A., Bauguitte, S., …Taylor, J. (2014)
Atmospheric composition and thermodynamic retrievals from the ARIES airborne TIR-FTS system--Part 2: Validation and results from aircraft campaigns. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 7(12), 4401-4416. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-4401-2014
This study validates trace gas and thermodynamic retrievals from nadir infrared spectroscopic measurements recorded by the UK Met Office Airborne Research Interferometer Evalu...

Methane and carbon dioxide fluxes and their regional scalability for the European Arctic wetlands during the MAMM project in summer 2012

Journal Article
O'Shea, S. J., Allen, G., Gallagher, M. W., Bower, K., Illingworth, S., Muller, J., …Pyle, J. (2014)
Methane and carbon dioxide fluxes and their regional scalability for the European Arctic wetlands during the MAMM project in summer 2012. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 14(23), 13159-13174. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-13159-2014
Airborne and ground-based measurements of methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and boundary layer thermodynamics were recorded over the Fennoscandian landscape (67–69.5° N, 20–...

Airborne measurements of HC(O)OH in the European Arctic: A winter – summer comparison

Journal Article
Jones, B. T., Muller, J. B., O'Shea, S. J., Bacak, A., Le Breton, M., Bannan, T. J., …Percival, C. J. (2014)
Airborne measurements of HC(O)OH in the European Arctic: A winter – summer comparison. Atmospheric Environment, 99, 556-567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2014.10.030
This study represents the first airborne, in-situ measurements of HC(O)OH in the European Arctic, across the winter and summer seasons. HC(O)OH concentrations are under predic...

UK Citizen Rainfall Network: a pilot study

Journal Article
Illingworth, S. M., Muller, C. L., Graves, R., & Chapman, L. (2014)
UK Citizen Rainfall Network: a pilot study. Weather, 69(8), 203-207. https://doi.org/10.1002/wea.2244

Feasibility of aerial measurements of methane emissions from landfills

Report
Allen, G., Gallagher, M., Hollingsworth, P., Illingworth, S., Kabbabe, K., & Percival, C. (2014)
Feasibility of aerial measurements of methane emissions from landfills. Bristol: Environment Agency
This desk-based study has identified the most suitable aerial system, instrumentation and methods to measure the amount of methane released to the atmosphere from UK landfill ...

Atmospheric composition and thermodynamic retrievals from the ARIES airborne FTS system – Part 1: Technical aspects and simulated capability

Journal Article
Illingworth, S., Allen, G., Newman, S., Vance, A., Marenco, F., Harlow, R., …Remedios, J. (2014)
Atmospheric composition and thermodynamic retrievals from the ARIES airborne FTS system – Part 1: Technical aspects and simulated capability. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 7(4), 10833-10887. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-1133-2014
In this study we present an assessment of the retrieval capability of the Airborne Research Interferometer Evaluation System (ARIES): an airborne remote-sensing Fourier transf...

Measurement of boundary layer ozone concentrations on-board a Skywalker unmanned aerial vehicle

Journal Article
Illingworth, S., Allen, G., Percival, C., Hollingsworth, P., Gallagher, M., Ricketts, H., …Roberts, G. (2014)
Measurement of boundary layer ozone concentrations on-board a Skywalker unmanned aerial vehicle. Atmospheric Science Letters, 15(4), 252--258. https://doi.org/10.1002/asl2.496
This study demonstrates novel measurements of in situ ozone (O3) concentrations and thermodynamics sampled on‐board an instrumented Skywalker Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Sm...

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • Research Grant: Arts Council England, £14,750, Experimental Words 2, University of Western Australia, 2021
  • Research Grant: WUN, £9,994, Education in a Warming World, University of Western Australia, 2020
  • Research Grant: Advance HE, £2,500, Advance HE Connect, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2019
  • Research Grant: Kickstarter, £32,420, Carbon City Zero, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2019
  • Research Grant: EPSRC, £4,000, HEAT, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2019
  • Research Grant: Society for Applied Microbiology, £3,000, Antibiotics on the Tabletop, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2018
  • Research Grant: Arts Council England, £14,800, Experimental Words , Manchester Metropolitan University, 2017
  • Research Grant: Arts and Humanities Research Council, £56,000, The Imitation Game: Artificial Intelligence in Analogue and Digital Games, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2018
  • Research Grant: Royal Society of Chemistry, £1,800, Tabletop Chemistry, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2018
  • Research Grant: Natural Environmental Research Council, £119,000, Climate Consortium, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2017
  • Research Grant: The Royal Society, £2,800, History of Science Poetry, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2016

Current Post Grad projects

Non-Napier PhD or MSc by Research supervisions

  • PhD Supervison - Eleanor Dunn, University College Dublin
  • PhD Completion - Dr Tony Hall PhD (2017-2020) First Supervisor, Manchester Metropolitan University
  • PhD Completion - Dr Maria Loroño PhD (2016-2019) First Supervisor, Manchester Metropolitan University
  • PhD Completion - Dr Joanne Phillips PhD (2015-2018) First Supervisor, Manchester Metropolitan University