Tom McLeish is a physicist at Durham University specializing in soft matter, rheology and biological physics. He is a theoretician, but has always worked closely with experimentalists, industrial scientists and has run several large interdisciplinary teams. Current research focuses on functional protein dynamics. Veronica Strang is a cultural anthropologist at Durham. Her research focuses on human-environmental relations, in particular cultural and sub-cultural engagements with water. She does considerable interdisciplinary work, and her current role, leading Durham's Institute of Advanced Study, is concerned with developing interdisciplinary research.