Dr. Gemma Bale

Dr. Gemma Bale is the Gianna Angelopoulos Assistant Professor of Medical Therapeutics at the Cavendish Laboratory and the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. She is also an Honorary Lecturer in Medical Physics at University College London (UCL). Her work focuses on developing new, non-invasive brain monitoring techniques for the measurement of cerebral oxygenation and metabolism in areas where traditional brain monitoring isn’t possible.

Dr. Bale has been awarded The Isambard Kingdom Brunel Award Lecture for Engineering, Technology, and Industry by the British Science Association, as part of its prestigious Award Lectures for 2018. She was chosen as one of only six top UK researchers chosen for her pioneering research and her engaging communication skills. Other recipients included Brian Cox.

Her work focuses on brain injury in newborn babies by applying a novel infrared light technique to enable a new way of brain monitoring. She develops new near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) techniques for the measurement of metabolism and cerebral oxygenation, via cytochrome-c-oxidase. Her Ph.D. involved demonstrating and developing a novel broadband NIRS instrument to monitor neonatal brain injuries.

Dr Gemma Bale has been selected as one of eight founding Programme Directors of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), a new governmental research and development funding agency built to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs for everyone’s benefit.

Gemma studied Physics at Imperial College London and undertook a Masters in Photonics Systems Development at UCL and the University of Cambridge. She has always been passionate about communicating science and was awarded the UCL Provost’s Engineering Engager of the Year award (during her Ph.D.) for her work in communicating science to the public, this was done in many forms – from stand-up comedy to teach in schools. Post-PhD, she led an award-winning public engagement platform called MetaboLight.