Lead Operational Researcher, Defra

Continuing Policy Fellow, Centre for Science and Policy

Ben Wōden is a Lead Operational Researcher in Defra’s Central Analysis and Insight Directorate.

Before taking up this role in January 2024, he worked at the UK Trade Remedies Authority (an Arm’s Length Body of the Department for Businesses and Trade) as Head of Evaluation & Research, following a previous stint at Defra in the Future Farming and Countryside Programme, where he led environmental science work on the Landscape Recovery Scheme.

He read Chemistry at the University of Reading, achieving an MChem and then a PhD, which focused on harnessing neutron reflectometry techniques to study chemical reactions that occur on the surface of cloud droplets that have been exposed to pollution from meat cooking and deep fat frying, and their impacts on air quality, weather, and climate change.

He also held a short fellowship during his PhD on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee (House of Commons) as a Climate and Energy Specialist and worked for Shell Global Solutions as a Biofuels Researcher on the Year in Industry scheme.