I'm Ben Johnson, a science policy person with a sideline in music-making, based in London, UK. I co-direct Science Works, a research, policy and software studio focused on improving the British science and technology landscape. My interests there are in government policy, research analytics, metascience and institutional reform. I have a professorial role at the University of Strathclyde, also focused on UK government policy, which is my main area of expertise, and which is the subject of my Substack.

My background is in policy roles in government, starting in research policy roles in public funding agencies. I spent an interesting few years directly advising various Science Ministers, Business Secretaries, and Technology Secretaries – and while I was never really a true 'misfit' or 'weirdo', I can accept the honorary title graciously. I've also advised the Scottish Government on innovation. I'm a huge open science advocate, and dabble in software engineering (I've been writing code for nearly 40 years).

I am a musician. My main instrument is violin, though I have studied drums and percussion to degree level, am a keen singer (I once fronted a synth-pop band), and things with strings tend to make intuitive sense to me. I compose music, sometimes with my colleague Jim Cornick (the other half of Ersatz). Most of my music-making these days consists of creating music patches and performances in Max/MSP, which is a visual programming language for creating algorithmic or process-driven music and art installations. I have a YouTube channel and Instagram that seem to be quite popular within that community.

I'm always willing to hear from people who are interested in either science or music. I'm reachable on ben [at] science [dot] works, or ben [dot] johnson [at] strath.ac.uk.