Ian Farnan is Chair of Cambridge Nuclear Energy Centre and a Professor of Earth & Nuclear Materials at the University of Cambridge. He is an expert in the effect of nuclear radiation and high temperatures on materials, with seminal contributions (papers in Science and Nature) to the understanding of a range of materials from nuclear fuels and claddings to waste forms. He has extensive experience of high temperature liquids and is currently involved in supporting the development of molten salt technology through fundamental research on in situ measurements on dissolution and speciation in molten salts. He has led national (UK EPSRC) and international (Euratom) research consortia including the RCUK/NDA spent fuel research group and more recently within the EPSRC advanced materials for fission program, the consortium Carbides for Future Fission Environments. He is Academic Discipline Lead in Materials Science for Nuclear Waste Services, the UK organisation tasked with delivering a UK nuclear waste disposal facility (GDF). He has been an active participant in improving innovation in nuclear energy, not just in the technical sphere, but across the piece in finance, regulation, security and liability to improve the prospects of nuclear energy deployment globally. As such he is co-chair of Working Group 4 on improving innovation in nuclear energy of the NEA Global Forum where he is also a member of the Council of Advisers. In 2024, Ian spent two sabbatical semesters at the Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Center as a Managing the Atom fellow working on the  policy implications of deploying micro-reactors across the world.