Researcher's Profile

My research explores future societies over long-term horizons and examines how these insights can inform long-term visioning, strategy formation and strategic implementation in companies, governments and other organisations. Focusing on areas such as energy, materials and manufacturing, robotics and digital technologies, I combine quantitative and qualitative methods with AI-assisted approaches to structure and visualise the complexity of societal challenges. Expert knowledge and diverse sources of data are integrated to identify the elements that may shape future societies, understand the relationships among them and develop methods for constructing multiple images of future society. I also examine the technological, societal and institutional conditions and uncertainties associated with different societal futures, how their plausibility changes over time and under what conditions new societal futures may become plausible. These insights are then used to inform the long-term visions of companies, governments and other actors, relating them to developments that can be anticipated from the present and connecting corporate, business and technology perspectives with strategy formation and decision-making under uncertainty. My research also examines the quality and mechanisms of future making, including learning and reassessment as actors seek to realise envisioned futures. Its scope extends from individual actors and organisations to societal and international levels, including regional contexts in the Global South and future making involving multiple stakeholders.

This research draws on academic and professional experience in engineering, industry, international development and management. My earlier experience includes technology development in the chemical industry, research on the industrialisation of advanced science and technology and international business in the private sector. At the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), I have been involved in international technology transfer and industrial development for more than ten years. At the University of Cambridge, my research focused on technological and market uncertainty, roadmapping, future exploration and visioning and strategy formation. Through IfM Engage, I have also collaborated with companies on research and university-industry engagement. At the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), I build on these experiences to investigate the underlying nature of long-term societal challenges and explore pathways towards more fundamental solutions. My aim is to develop the resulting insights into theories and methods for foresight and future making and to translate them into practical value for society.