The Principal

The Principal of the Samuel Lindow Foundation is responsible to the Trustees for the direction, scope and delivery of the objects and activities of the Foundation.

Dr Rick Wylie is the Principal of the Foundation. He is also Samuel Lindow Academic Director at the University of Central Lancashire's West Cumbria campus where he is the Executive Director of the Applied Policy Sciences Unit.

He is a political scientist who was formerly the Academic Development Manager of the Westlakes Research Institute and a Senior Consultant with Westlakes Scientific Consulting, a spinout company from British Nuclear Fuels in West Cumbria. Prior to that he was a research associate at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne where he was the Deputy Director of the Government Enterprise Communication Unit and undertook contract research for the nuclear, oil and tourism industries.

He has worked for almost two decades as a consultant and contractor to the civil nuclear industry at site, corporate and national levels on a range of nuclear governance projects in the areas of radioactive waste, decommissioning and external relations. He has led projects involving public opinion, policy partnerships, public and stakeholder relations and public consultation involving sites around the UK. Recently, he led the UK element of a European Framework Six project identifying best practice in the governance of radioactive waste.

Before being involved in academe and consultancy he worked in manufacturing, retail and for eight years in local government tourism. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Travel and Tourism, a Member of the Tourism Society, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.

Rick has a PhD in public opinion towards perceived risk, values, and the natural environment which draws upon extensive fieldwork involving the nuclear industry, and an M.Phil in policy partnerships and government industry relations, both from Newcastle University where he took a first degree in Politics.