Baroness (Susan) Greenfield CBE

Susan Greenfield is one of the world’s leading authorities in neuroscience. She considers the way the brain works, and how it’s being transformed by the world around us. A leader in research into degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, Susan also considers how technological development is corroding our learning ability, imagination and even free will.

Alongside her career researching the physiology of the brain, Susan has presented and contributed to a host of popular science programmes on radio and TV, and written many books revealing the workings of the brain.

Amongst a bewildering range of subjects, Susan examines the nature of memory, emotion and consciousness and how the brain reacts to natural and artificial stimuli from alcohol to road rage to social media. She looks at what the future holds in developed nations as people live longer and rely increasingly on technology whilst poorer nations prioritise economic and ecological concerns. Most significantly Susan considers the fundamental effects technology is having on our brains, as memory is required less, access to information is easy, but the emphasis on facts undermines the need to think and create. She also asks what this all-pervading technology will do to our sense of identity and privacy, and the long-term effects on young minds.

Susan was the first female director of the Royal Institution. Formerly Professor of Synaptic Pharmacology, she is now the Senior Research Fellow at Lincoln College, Oxford, and also Chief Scientific Officer and CEO of biotech company Neuro-bio. Her many bestselling books include Mind Change: How digital technologies are leaving their mark on our brains, ID: The Quest for Meaning in the 21st Century, Tomorrow’s People and The Human Brain - A Guided Tour.

A regular writer for scientific and popular press, Susan has written for The Times, Guardian, Independent, Telegraph and New Scientist. She has been profiled as one of the fifty most powerful women in Europe, and included in the Debrett's 500, a list of ‘ the most influential and inspiring people in Britain’.