Mr Jonathan Cornwell

Johnny Cornwell is Director of the Science & Human Dimension Project at Clare Hall, Cambridge.

As director of the Science & Human Dimension Project, he convenes interdisciplinary conferences which bring together the research community with experts from industry, government, the arts and the media, to broaden the appreciation of new ideas and discoveries in science and technology, and to ask searching questions about the ethical dilemmas they pose for humanity. The current focus of the project is on climate change and the Mediterranean Sea and region, and climate migration. Previously it has addressed ethical questions such as the controversy over human embryonic stem cell research, communicating science in the media, cybersecurity, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, geopolitics of energy, food security, inequalities and artificial intelligence. The project achieves outreach through the publishing articles in national press, books and producing short films. Before joining Clare Hall, he was a Senior Research Associate at Jesus College, Cambridge, where the project was founded.

Johnny has a background in academic publishing and elearning, and also works in the arts, organising exhibitions in a variety of settings: he was on the organising committee of Houghton Revisited (winner of 2013 Apollo Exhibition of the Year Award); James Turrell’s Lightscape (2015) at Houghton Hall, Norfolk; The Majlis: A Meeting Place at San Giorgio Maggiore for the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021; and in 2024-25, A Cabinet of Wonders – The Loudon Collection at the Palazzo Grimani, Venice. He is co-organiser of the International Convention of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism, taking place in Qatar in 2024. He studied French and Spanish at UCL, Economics at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and has an MBA from Imperial College London.