Dr Tristram Riley-Smith appointed as External Champion   

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Tristram Riley-Smith from the University of Cambridge as External Champion to the programme.

As the External Champion, Dr Tristram Riley-Smith will work as a high-profile ambassador, seeking to enhance opportunities for knowledge exchange by connecting researchers to government, industry and the third sector.

Tristram has spent over 25 years working as a specialist in defence, security and infrastructure protection in Whitehall. He was posted as a Counsellor to the British Embassy in Washington DC in 2002 and in recent years has established and run a Centre for Science, Knowledge & Innovation.

Before Whitehall, Tristram studied Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. He conducted doctoral research in the Kathmandu Valley, working among the Newari artists who create images of Buddhist and Hindu gods, and post-doctoral research in Thailand.

He has recently drawn on this training as a social scientist in writing his portrait of the USA in the opening decade of the 21st Century, The Cracked Bell: America and the Afflictions of Liberty, which was published in 2010.

Tristram welcomes comments, ideas or insights about the programme.