Dr Julia Knights is Deputy Director of the Science Museum with oversight of exhibitions, curatorial, visitor experience & operations. Julia joined the Museum from the Senior Civil Service as Deputy Director Energy and Climate Science at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. Prior to this, Julia spent 12 years as a diplomat in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office heading up the science teams in East China, Russia, Brazil, Argentina & Chile. During this time, Julia managed large science programmes including a £150 million fund for UK-Brazil research in climate, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture and tropical medicine. Julia also designed and led science diplomacy campaigns including the UK-Brazil Year of Science 2018-2019; UK-Brazil climate lecture series at Rio 2016 Olympics and the UK-Russia Year of Space 2011. Julia holds a BSc Hons in soil science, an MSc in crop protection and a PhD in soil & climate biogeochemistry. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology & a Policy Fellow of the Cambridge University Centre for Science & Policy.
To mark Clean Air Day in June, the UK’s largest campaign on air pollution, Dr Julia Knights, Deputy Director of the Science Museum spoke to Andrew Grieve, Senior Air Quality Analyst at Imperial College, London, to find out more about how the Breathe London initiative is helping to provide free real time information on air quality in the capital.
Today (11 December) is International Mountain Day, a UN initiative launched in 2002 to highlight the key role mountains play in biodiversity and livelihoods. Dr Julia Knights, Deputy Director of the Science Museum, explores the mountains of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest through the lens of the stunning images by Sebastião Salgado in the Amazônia exhibition at the Science Museum.
Dr Julia Knights, Deputy Director of the Science Museum, celebrates the recent achievements of astronaut Christina Koch whilst emphasising the key role women play in STEM and space exploration.