British science communicator (born 1974)
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
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 doctoral thesis was titled "Butterflies as signal receivers" and was completed in 1998.[ 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]
Freeman was recommended for appointment as a non-party-political life peer by the House of Lords Appointments Commission in May 2024.[ 1] She was created Baroness Freeman of Steventon, of Abingdon in the County of Oxfordshire , on 5 June 2024,[ 8] and was introduced to the House of Lords on 29 July as a crossbencher .[ 9] [ 10]
Selected works
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
References
International National Academics People