Dr Chris Macdonald is a behavioural scientist, founder, and author. At Lucy Cavendish College, Chris is Lab Director, Communications Director, Sustainability Engagement Lead, and a Fellow. Chris is also a Fellow at the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, a Public Engagement Fellow at Cambridge Zero, and a Supervisor at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.
Chris has a diverse portfolio of professional experience including working as a consultant, technical director, and manager for media and tech companies in North America. When he returned to the UK, Chris established the multi-award-winning Immersive Technology Lab, where he investigates the transformative potential of emerging technologies for education and healthcare.
Chris is the founder of a virtual reality platform where users transform into confident and skilled public speakers with the help of virtual reality exposure therapy. On the free platform, users build resilience through a self-paced gamified journey where the virtual audiences increase as tasks are completed. Chris has also created a free online data science and programming course for those getting started with academic research, and he is the author of the best-selling book, Operation Sustainable Human, which explores data-driven climate action. All of Chris's research papers and books are available as free digital downloads (if a physical copy is purchased, ten trees are planted).
Chris has received multiple awards from the University of Cambridge for his research—including the Excellence Award for improving the efficacy of ‘green nudges’, and the Innovation Award for a project that uses artificial intelligence and virtual reality to better translate and visualise emissions data. The latter project was subsequently shortlisted for the National Innovation Award, which it won. Chris was also a finalist for the World Sustainability Awards and the Global Good Awards.
