Professor Gary Kass

I am proud to be a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Surrey where I strive to support the development of key competencies for sustainability.

I am a professional sustainability scientist and knowledge broker, with 35 years’ practice in the public and private sectors, working at the interface of science and policy. I have championed forward-looking, systemic and interdisciplinary approaches to using science and evidence to tackle critical environmental and sustainability challenges.

After training as an environmental scientist in the mid-80s and following some time in environmental consulting working with a wide variety of industry and business secures, I moved into the public sector in the mid-90s to become Head of the Environment and Energy programme at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology and then Head of Public Engagement with Science and Technology at the (then) Department of Trade and Industry.

I then joined Natural England in 2007 as Principal Specialist in Strategy and Environmental Futures and served as Deputy Chief Scientist between 2014 and 2022.

Outside of government, I have served on numerous academic panels and boards including the Natural Environment Research Council’s Innovation Advisory Board and has been involved in the Research Excellence framework since 2014, with particular interest in the ‘impact’ agenda.

I held a Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) Fellowship between 2011 and 2013 and was Council member and then Chair of Institution of Environmental Sciences from 2014 until 2021. I am a Chartered Scientist and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.