Following a mixed academic background – a B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology from Durham University, an M.A. in Applied Philosophy from the University of Hull and a Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science from University College London – I taught in the Sociology Department at Sussex University for seven years. I moved to Cardiff in 2009 to help run the ESRC funded CESAGen research centre after which I held various roles in the School of Social Sciences, including Director of Research.
I am an ethnographer and sociologist of science with an interest in biomedical science (especially genetics) and its regulation. I have published widely on the impact on professional practice of genetic tests and decision making in research ethics committees.
My current work focuses on decision making around ambiguous results of genomic tests, and how groups of professionals decide whether these results are pathogenic and disease causing or simply benign.