STEM Faculty

Computing and Communications

The School leads and shapes the digital revolution through delivering innovative and dynamic teaching that is relevant to the workplace, and is founded on world-class research and scholarship in computing and communications.

Engineering and Innovation

The School leads the OU’s teaching in Engineering, Design, Technology & Innovation Management, Systems Thinking and Environmental Management and has highly rated Design and Materials Engineering research.

Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences

The School is renowned for its interdisciplinary research and teaching methods, enhancing our understanding of past and present Earth and environmental systems interactions, and promoting positive actions for a sustainable future.

Life Health and Chemical Sciences

Leading research and teaching across the broad discipline areas: Brain & Behavioural Sciences; Cell & Molecular Biology; Chemistry & Analytical Sciences and Human Biology.

Mathematics and Statistics

The School’s research in mathematics and statistics fuels innovation in industry, medicine and public health.

Physical Sciences

World-leading research and teaching in Astronomy, Physics, and Planetary & Space Sciences.

News

The Open University at The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2019

08 Feb 2026

The “Living on the Moon” exhibit took place at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition last week and proved very popular, with an estimate of more than 10,000 visitors. The exhibit was created by a consortium of 5 UK institutions (The Open University, Birkbeck, Natural History Museum, Oxford University and Manchester University), bringing together lunar research […]

Dr Geraint Morgan working on a new project for greener…

08 Feb 2026

Dr Geraint (Taff) Morgan from the School of Physical Sciences is involved in a SPRINT funding project to to utilise patented valve technology in…

Ariel space mission moves one step closer to reality

06 Feb 2026

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) exoplanet mission Ariel, set to launch in 2029, has moved from study to implementation phase. Ariel, also known…

New research: exploring the reproductive complexity of plants

14 Jan 2026

New research published in the high-profile journal Science has explored the reproductive complexity of plants. The researchers found that the reproductive complexity…

Horizon Europe – Climate Smart Advisors

09 Jan 2026

On 5th March 2025, Kevin Collins attended and facilitated sessions at…

Applied Smouldering Combustion for Supporting a Circular Economy

07 Jan 2026

Sustainable waste management requires significant increases in the proportion of…

BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds – Rare…

07 Jan 2026

This month, the BBC science documentary series Rare Earth returns with…

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People

Prof Mike Fernando

Executive Dean, STEM

STEM at The Open University is about opening doors: to knowledge, opportunity and discovery. Our strength lies in the people who learn, teach, research and collaborate here, and in the difference we can make together.

Prof Stephen Lewis

Head of School

Prof Eleanor Crabb

Head of School

Dr Rachel Slater

Head of School

Mr John Woodthorpe

Head of School

Dr Colette Christiansen

Head of School

Prof Carlton Wood

Head of School

environment-earth-and-ecosystem-sciences

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Research highlights

Adaptive Security and Privacy

The Adaptive Security and Privacy (ASAP) research programme aims to radically re-conceptualise software engineering for ubiquitous computing in ways that are cognisant of the changing needs of users, of the changing threats to user assets, and of the changing relationships...

Technology and education research group

The group researches: the use of technology for teaching and learning; and the teaching and learning of technology.

Astrobiology

Our unique approach to astrobiology research combines fieldwork, laboratory simulations, thermochemical modelling and in situ observations.

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Latest STEM publications

Displaying 5 of 12532 publications

Hayden, T. S., Barrett, T. J., Anand, M., Whitehouse, M. J., Jeon, H., Zhao, X., Mechem, M. E., Osinski, G. R. and Franchi, I. A., 2027, ‘Petrography, geochronology, and volatile inventory of lunar meteorite Northwest Africa 12593’, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 562(1), https://oro.open.ac.uk/108726/.
Yao, G., Tang, Y., Wu, H., Cao, J., Sui, Y., Song, D. and Ji, S., 2027, ‘U-RAG: Utility-aware Retrieval-Augmented Generation via marginal gain modeling’, Information Processing & Management, 64(2 Part B), https://oro.open.ac.uk/112304/.
Wise, F. and Moncaster, A., 2027, ‘Building retrofit for energy and carbon reduction: identifying future research priorities and trends from a critical analysis and systematic mapping review of the global literature’, Applied Energy, 427 Part B, https://oro.open.ac.uk/112030/.
Bennasar, M., Muftah, A., Zisman, A., Katz, D., Johnston, A. and Muhammad, A., 2027, ‘Hybrid Intent Classification for AAC: A Multi-stage LLM Pipeline for Gesture Support in Cerebral Palsy’, in Miesenberger, Klaus; Petrie, Helen and Peňáz, Petr eds. Computers Helping People with Special Needs. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (16866). Cham: Springer, pp. 490–498., https://oro.open.ac.uk/111708/.
Kimber, E. and Smith, C., 2027, ‘Affordances for Graphical Shape Thinking through Vivid Informal Classroom Talk’, The Mathematics Enthusiast, 24(1), pp. 69–90., https://oro.open.ac.uk/106462/.

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