Professor Keith Burnett - Chair of the N8 Board of Directors
Vice Chancellor, University of Sheffield
Professor Keith Burnett is Chair of the N8 Board of Directors. The N8 Board is responsible for the strategic direction of the partnership and the approval of strategy and business plans. Keith's role is to establish the vision for collaborative working across the institutions and to provide leadership to the N8 Board. He provides strategic political engagement with Government officials, industry and other stakeholders. Keith also represents the N8 on the Northern Way Steering Group.
Professor Burnett is also Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University. He is an eminent scientist with an outstanding leadership track record and, before moving to Sheffield, was Head of the Division of Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences at the University of Oxford. Prior to that he was Chairman of Physics at Oxford, where he enjoyed a successful career of almost 20 years.
His academic career started in Colorado, United States, as a research associate at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics. He went on to become an assistant professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado. He was then a Lecturer in the Physics department at Imperial College for four years before moving to Oxford. He became Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University on 1 October 2007.
Professor Burnett was awarded a CBE for service to Physics in 2004 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001.
He is currently Chairman of the International Science Advisory committee of the UK's national laboratories. His research interests are in the areas of atomic, molecular and optical physics.
Professor Trevor McMillan - Chair of the N8 Executive Management Group
Pro-Vice-Chancellor - Research, University of Lancaster
Trevor McMillan is Chair of the N8 Executive Management Group, which is the Pro Vice Chancellors for Research at the 8 universities.
The Executive Management Group is responsible for developing N8 strategy and new ideas for research themes and collaboration.Trevor's role is to chair this group and to work closely with the Director on day to day issues for N8.
Trevor is the Pro Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Lancaster, and responsible for research development, relationships with major funding bodies and other organisations, performance indicators and RAE policy.
Trevor is Peel Professor of Cancer Biology and a member of the Biomedical and Life Sciences in the division in the School of Health and Medicine at Lancaster University.
Sarah Jackson - Director of the N8 Research Partnership
Sarah Jackson is Director of the N8 Research Partnership. Sarah joined the N8 in January 2010. Her role is to develop new collaborative research partnerships and create and build teams of N8 academics and industry partners. She is also responsible for the management of the portfolio of N8 Research Centres and the financial and operational management of N8.
Prior to this, she was Head of Innovation for The Northern Way, where she developed and implemented the Northern Way Innovation Programme - a £15m investment in 4 key areas of market opportunity for the North of England. This Programme was highlighted by Government as an example of best practice in cross-regional collaboration, mobilising resources to invest in economic opportunities across regional boundaries.
Sarah has also worked in a number of project management roles at the Northwest Development Agency and at the University of Manchester. She spent two years at Deloitte as a graduate trainee.
She has a first class honours in Sociology and an MSc in Innovation Management, both from the University of Manchester.
Kim Moores - N8 Administrator
Kim Moores is the administrator of the N8 Research Partnership. Kim joined N8 in May 2010. Her role is to provide comprehensive support to the Director of N8 including strategy development, Business engagement, PR and marketing, financial planning and management accounting. She is also responsible for management of Research Centre projects.
Kim previously worked for the Legal Services Commission developing and co-ordinating a national grant scheme annually providing £3m investment for trainee solicitors committed to a career in legal aid. Prior to this worked she worked as a Civil Finance Caseworker.