Ben joined University of Surrey in April 2018. Prior to that he was Director of Policy Studies Institute (PSI).
He has over 20 years’ experience of working on environmental issues at the interface of research and policy. While at PSI he worked on research projects investigating eco-innovation, environmental tax reform, public responses to environmental policy, the evaluation of policy and research, and children’s independent mobility. He was the lead co-ordinator of the Sustainable Development Research Network (SDRN) and managed the secretariat for the UK Green Fiscal Commission.
Ben has a particular research interests in the use of evidence in the policy system, the development of evaluation approaches for environmental policy interventions and development of policies and actions intended to create child-friendly cities.
Prior to joining PSI, Ben was Principal Policy Adviser at Green Alliance. His work there mainly focused on national-level strategic policy development and advocacy in the areas of waste, resource and product policy, but also included projects on the role of negotiated agreements in UK environmental policy and sustainable consumption.
Ben read Geology at Bristol University and followed this with a MSc and research in geophysics before moving to his work focused on environmental policy and research.