THE POWER OF DESIGN

Rachel Cooper OBE is Distinguished Professor of Design Management and Policy at Lancaster University. She was founding Director of ImaginationLancaster. Her research interests cover: design thinking; design management; design policy; and across all sectors of industry, a specific interest in design for wellbeing and socially responsible design. She has published extensively on these topics, including books ‘The Handbook of Design Management’, ‘Designing Sustainable Cities’,’The Handbook of Wellbeing and the Environment’ and’  Living in Digital Worlds; designing the digital public space’. She is also series editor of the Routledge series Design for Social Responsibility. She is a member of the Council of The Royal College of Art and Norwich University of the Arts. She is advisor to a  number of government and non-government  initiatives, she was a Lead Expert for the UK Government Foresight programme on the Future of Cities, the Blackett Review of the Internet of Things  and  the Academy of Medical Sciences Working group addressing ‘the health of the public 2040’. She is now on the Expert Steering Group for the UK Partnership for Prevention Research and a UK representative on the ICSU Scientific Committee for Health and Wellbeing in the Changing Urban Environment. She was founding editor of The Design Journal and also founding President of the European Academy of Design. She is currently President of the Design Research Society.