Professor Kate Robson Brown
UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact
Professor Kate Robson Brown was appointed as UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact on 1 March 2024.
Before her tenure at UCD, Professor Robson Brown began her career at the University of Cambridge, where she received her PhD in Human Phylogenetics at Newnham College, and then held a Research Fellowship at Downing College. Her research explores the microstructure of living tissues and their response to changing and extreme environments; human factors; forensics; biomimetics in engineering design, and multi-scale modelling of complex material structures and systems. Moving to the University of Bristol, Kate held a fractional appointment across two Faculties (Science and Engineering / Arts Social Sciences and Law) as a Professor of Engineering Mathematics and Biological Anthropology. She was the Director of the Jean Golding Institute for Data Science and AI from 2017-2024. In 2017, she was also awarded a Fellowship from the Alan Turing Institute (the UK National Institute for Data Science and AI) and later was formally seconded to the Turing Institute as the Chair of their Research and Innovation Advisory Committee. She was honoured with an Honorary Fellowship in 2024 for her extensive contributions.
Professor Robson Brown was the University of Bristol lead in the West of England Space Cluster ‘SpaceWest’ and a Lay Chair for NHS Postgraduate Medical Education South West (Severn Deanery). She retains her status as a Visiting Professor in Data Science at Strathmore University in Nairobi and as an advisor to the ESA Human and Robotic Exploration Directorate. Kate is co-chair of the Space Academic Network, a Board member of the UK Life and Biomedical Sciences Association, and a member of the Space Partnership Board.