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Alexandra Freeman, Baroness Freeman of Steventon

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The Right Honourable
The Baroness Freeman of Steventon
Official portrait, 2024
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office
5 June 2024
Life peerage
Personal details
Born
Alexandra Lee Jessica Freeman

March 1974 (age 50)
Maryland, United States
NationalityBritish
Political partyNone (crossbencher)
Alma materLinacre College, Oxford
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge
ThesisButterflies as Signal Receivers (1998)
Doctoral advisorTim Guilford

Alexandra Lee Jessica Freeman, Baroness Freeman of Steventon (born March 1974) is a British science communicator, life peer, and former television producer. She has been a crossbench member of the House of Lords since 2024.

Biography

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Freeman was born in March 1974 in Maryland, United States.[1][2] She studied biological sciences at the University of Oxford, before remaining at the university to undertake a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in zoology.[3][4] Her 1998 doctoral thesis was titled "Butterflies as Signal Receivers" and was supervised by Tim Guilford.[5] As a postgraduate, she was a member of Linacre College, Oxford and the Department of Zoology.[5]

From 2000 to 2016, Freeman worked for the BBC.[3] As a producer or director, she was involved in Walking with Beasts, Life in the Undergrowth, Bang Goes the Theory, Climate Change by Numbers and Trust Me, I'm a Doctor.[6]

In 2016, Freeman joined the University of Cambridge as executive director of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication in the Faculty of Mathematics.[7]

In 2018 Freeman proposed a new approach to scientific publishing in the form of the Octopus platform designed to publish 'smaller units of publication' and to promote the principles of open science.[8] In 2021 Octopus received a grant from Research England to develop the platform into a global service.[9]

Freeman was recommended for appointment as a non-party-political life peer by the House of Lords Appointments Commission in May 2024.[1] She had applied for the role after hearing a member of the House of Lords speak on the radio about the need for more peers who could understand scientific evidence.[10][11] She was created Baroness Freeman of Steventon, of Abingdon in the County of Oxfordshire, on 5 June 2024,[12] and was introduced to the House of Lords on 29 July as a crossbencher.[13][14]

Selected works

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  • van der Bles, Anne Marthe; van der Linden, Sander; Freeman, Alexandra L. J.; Mitchell, James; Galvao, Ana B.; Zaval, Lisa; Spiegelhalter, David J. (May 2019). "Communicating uncertainty about facts, numbers and science". Royal Society Open Science. 6 (5): 181870. doi:10.1098/rsos.181870. PMC 6549952. PMID 31218028.
  • van der Bles, Anne Marthe; van der Linden, Sander; Freeman, Alexandra L. J.; Spiegelhalter, David J. (7 April 2020). "The effects of communicating uncertainty on public trust in facts and numbers". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117 (14): 7672–7683. doi:10.1073/pnas.1913678117. PMC 7149229. PMID 32205438.
  • Dryhurst, Sarah; Schneider, Claudia R.; Kerr, John; Freeman, Alexandra L. J.; Recchia, Gabriel; van der Bles, Anne Marthe; Spiegelhalter, David; van der Linden, Sander (2 August 2020). "Risk perceptions of COVID-19 around the world". Journal of Risk Research. 23 (7–8): 994–1006. doi:10.1080/13669877.2020.1758193.
  • Roozenbeek, Jon; Schneider, Claudia R.; Dryhurst, Sarah; Kerr, John; Freeman, Alexandra L. J.; Recchia, Gabriel; van der Bles, Anne Marthe; van der Linden, Sander (October 2020). "Susceptibility to misinformation about COVID-19 around the world". Royal Society Open Science. 7 (10): 201199. doi:10.1098/rsos.201199. PMID 33204475.
  • Freeman, Alexandra LJ; Parker, Simon; Noakes, Catherine; Fitzgerald, Shaun; Smyth, Alexandra; Macbeth, Ron; Spiegelhalter, David; Rutter, Harry (December 2021). "Expert elicitation on the relative importance of possible SARS-CoV-2 transmission routes and the effectiveness of mitigations" (PDF). BMJ Open. 11 (12): e050869. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050869. PMC 8637346. PMID 34853105.

References

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  1. ^ a b "PRESS RELEASE: Two new non-party-political peers – House of Lords Appointments Commission" (PDF). lordsappointments.independent.gov.uk. House of Lords Appointments Commission. 7 May 2024. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Alexandra Lee Jessica FREEMAN personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
  3. ^ a b "ORCID: Alexandra Freeman". orcid.org. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
  4. ^ "Session 1: Researchers and engagement: Alex Freeman". Sense about Science. 21 February 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
  5. ^ a b Freeman, Alexandra (1998). Butterflies as signal receivers (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
  6. ^ "Alexandra Freeman". Harding-Zentrum für Risikokompetenz. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
  7. ^ "People: Executive Director Dr Alexandra Freeman". Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
  8. ^ "Dr Alexandra Freeman - 'Octopus: a radical new approach to scientific publishing' | Royal Society". royalsociety.org. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
  9. ^ "Funding agreed for a platform that will change research culture". www.ukri.org. 2021-08-06. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
  10. ^ O'Grady, Cathleen (10 May 2024). "A scientist asked to join the U.K. House of Lords—and got in". Science. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  11. ^ Spencer, Ben; Menzies, Venetia (23 June 2024). "The biggest secret of the House of Lords: You could join it". The Times. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  12. ^ "No. 64419". The London Gazette. 11 June 2024. p. 11226.
  13. ^ "Introduction: Baroness Freeman of Steventon". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 839. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Lords. 29 July 2024. col. 791.
  14. ^ "Baroness Freeman of Steventon: Parliamentary career". UK Parliament. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
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