Our Team

David Dangoor CBE
Honorary President

Dangoor Education provides opportunities across the learning spectrum with sponsorship of Westminster Academy, Open University Massive Open Online Courses, STEM university scholarships, the Dangoor Centre for Medical Education at the Royal Society of Medicine and the Dangoor Centre for Personalised Medicine at Bar Ilan University. Dangoor Education’s sponsorship of the UK, EU Space Design Competition and Galactic Challenges builds on the fantastic legacy of Sir Naim Dangoor, who supported the Competition for a number of years.

Marcus du Sautoy FRS, OBE

Patron

Prof. du Sautoy is the  Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. Formerly a Fellow of All Souls College, and Wadham College, he is now a Fellow of New College, Oxford. He was previously President of the Mathematical Association, an EPSRC Senior Media Fellow and a Royal Society University Research Fellow. His academic work concerns mainly group theory and number theory. In October 2008, he was appointed to the Simonyi Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science, succeeding the inaugural holder Richard Dawkins.

 

Dr Randall Perry

Founder of SSE²F

Prof. Perry is the founder of the UKSDC and the Space Science Engineering & Environmental Foundation (SSE²F). He is the Honorary Chair of the SSE²F, a registered UK charity. The SSE²F supports the UK, (MEA) and Europe (EU) Space Design Challenge and the Galactic Challenge. He is a director of the Global Space Design Challenge. He is a past Royal Society Fellow at Imperial College London. He has a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington, has held the US and Canada National Science Foundation Fellowship at Oxford University, and has a NASA certification in Astrobiology. His current focus is on education. In addition, he has published widely in his areas of interest of geology, geochemistry, microbiology and education. He is the author of six adventure novels. Besides scientific talks he enjoys giving talks to a wide variety of public venues for example being invited to give the Public Lecture at the Durham Institute for Advanced Studies on a Definition of Life and as a painter and member of the Chelsea Art Club an invited talk on Science and Art. As a script writer he is a member of the Writers Guild of America West. He is a director and producer whose most recent films are Meet Beau Dick  and Ride. In his spare time, he enjoys trekking, scuba diving and flying helicopters and aircraft. He was the president of a company before finishing a PhD later in life and has since visited many of the Earth’s extreme habitats including diving in ‘Alvin’ the deep submersible. He was shortlisted for a Sir Arthur Clarke Award.

Jenny Lyons

CEO of SSEF

Jenny Lyons has been with SSEF for more than a decade, evolving from a volunteer organiser into Director of Education and, latterly, CEO with a team of staff.  Jenny is an expert in the delivery of secondary school science education, having worked as part of a ‘flying squad’, sent to science departments to assist in raising standards. It was whilst working as a science teacher that Jenny brought a team of students to an SSEF event: the impact was so immediate, obvious and powerful that she became a Volunteer, assisting at competitions. 

As a Volunteer, Jenny became known for her skill in liaising with the trustees, the SSEF’s founder, the other volunteers, the sponsors, the UK Space Agency, diverse schools and regional universities. Enthused by the SSEF mission, she utilised her expertise, managing the educational and organisational change which has been fundamental to the expansion of SSEF’s work around the UK, EU and Africa, and in building a staff team whilst maintaining the ethos of a volunteer-strong charity. After a decade of events for school students, Jenny still takes a teacher’s delight in interacting with the students and in seeing the transformational impact of SSEF activities upon those young people.

Initially recognised and recruited by SSEF Founder, Randall Perry, Jenny maintains and promotes the founder’s original vision of a high impact, widely accessible industry simulation which provides an experience beyond any typical ‘school project’. With the staff team,volunteers, trustees and founder, Jenny has helped SSEF expand its efforts around the UK, into the EU and, recently, into Africa, whilst expanding across age groups, across disciplines and whilst handling the need to find income to fund the expansions.

Beyond this, and because of this, Jenny is a champion for the power of SSEF as a volunteer-rich organisation, and finds joy in working with the large, diverse pool of talented volunteers and competition veterans who are so much a part of the SSEF’s world.

Alison Ahearn

Director of Education

Alison Ahearn is the SSEF Director of Education, with a particular remit for Educational Development of the SSEF programmes, for wider audiences and extending to Earth-centric Environmental Design Challenges. Back in 2009, Alison was one of the Imperial teaching staff who responded to Randall Perry’s call for volunteers for a new outreach activity called UKSDC and, after serving as a volunteer and trustee, became Director of Education after formally retiring from Imperial. Alison still contributes to teaching on the MEng at Imperial, on industry-centric modules relating to construction practice, management, law and business. She has won awards for her ‘radical innovation’ in construction education, called The Constructionarium, which has been adopted at universities in the UK and abroad.  

Recent developments by Alison include creating the Environmental Design Challenge for UK and a new version tailored for delivery in Barbados. She has also been developing a ‘students-as-partners’ approach to creating programmes to serve youth organisations, such as Ministry of Defence Air Cadets. 

Alison practised as a solicitor in Sydney Australia before taking up a post at Imperial College London in 1990, specialising in information systems for construction law barristers. She became an Imperial teacher in 1996 and was made a Principal Teaching Fellow in recognition of her education innovation for industry.  

Bill Richards

Interim Chair

Bill is a Maths teacher at Bede’s school in East Sussex and was introduced to the UK SDC in 2014 by one of his students asking, “Do you think we could enter this?” Frustrated with not being able to organise a combined entry for the following year’s UKSDC Micro event with his prep school, Bill decided the solution was to hold an event for nearby prep schools on similar lines. The rest is history and the Galactic Challenge was born! When not teaching Maths or enthusing about all things of Galactic importance, Bill represents Great Britain at the sport of Target Rifle shooting all around the world.

Aadil Kara

Board Member

Aadil first became involved with the SSE²F as a student participant; later as a volunteer; then as an organiser and competition board member. He was the Galactic Challenge Chair at the start of COVID-19 and organised the Digital Competitions, which accidentally became the SSE²F’s largest programme that year.
Aadil is an analyst in the UK Civil Service and holds a degree in physics from Imperial College London. His current interests include the London Underground and learning about effective ways to positively impact the world.

Isabelle Singh

Board Member


I am a Computer Science teacher at Riddlesdown Collegiate in Purley. Riddlesdown was one of the first winners at the UKSDC and have had a long relationship with the event . I became involved when a physic’s teacher emailed a request asking for volunteers to take our kids on a Saturday to Imperial College London. That was 3 years ago and have been hooked ever since. To see the kids so involved in an event how could you not be a part of it.

Last year I was introduced to the Galactic challenge by Bill Richards from Bede’s School and ended up running 2 Galactic Challenges in our school. One for Primary School students and one for Secondary school students  (Year 7-9). My hope is to share my enthusiasm  and the enthusiasm the senior students at the UKSDC with the Galactic Challenge.

Louis Lyle

SDC board representative

Louis recently finish a degree in Mathematics and Statistics at the University of York and has been involved in the competition since 2011. He was the head of the Human engineering section of the winning team in 2014 and was one of the twelve chosen to represent the UK at the international final in Florida. Louis has since volunteered for both the 2015 and 2016 competitions and has held a number of roles varying from technical specialist, to judge, to CEO at last year’s final. He is also the Science and Technology section editor for one of his university’s student newspapers and is an avid member of many scientific societies.