40 Under 40 UK is a national award programme that seeks to identify and celebrate the nation’s most influential and outstanding young leaders under the age of 40. As the name also suggests, there are 40 categories which cover a wide range of industries. There is only one winner per category which is decided by an initial public vote and subsequent specialist judging panel. This year’s award ceremony took place in November at a red-carpet event in South Kensington, where Dr Chris Macdonald was crowned the winner of the 40 Under 40 Award in the highly competitive Science and Innovation category.
At the ceremony, it was noted that Dr Macdonald “translates his scientific discoveries into practical tools that help others, and he makes them freely accessible to all.” He was praised for being “disruptive in the best sense” and a “powerful driving force of positive change”.
Dr Chris Macdonald is a behavioural scientist, founder, and author. Chris is a Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College and the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability. Chris is also a Public Engagement Fellow at Cambridge Zero, and a Supervisor at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.
Chris has a diverse portfolio of professional experience including working as a consultant, technical director, and manager for media and tech companies in North America. When he returned to the UK, Chris established the multi-award-winning Immersive Technology Lab, where he investigates the transformative potential of emerging technologies for education and healthcare.
Chris is the founder of a first-of-its-kind virtual reality platform where users transform into skilled and confident public speakers. Tailored course material develops core skills and virtual reality training environments accelerate learning and build confidence. Multiple technological firsts were achieved to make the platform uniquely accessible. To build further confidence, Chris developed the concept of ‘Overexposure Therapy’ (which involves training in extreme scenarios that one is unlikely to encounter in real life). For example, on the platform, users can practice a presentation inside of a virtual reality stadium in front of a noisy and hyper distracting animated audience of 10,000 spectators. The process provides the psychological equivalent of running with weights or at high altitude: it builds grit, adaptability, and resilience. Chris unveiled and evaluated the highly effective new protocol in a research paper published in Frontiers in Virtual Reality.
Chris has also created a free online data science and programming course for those getting started with academic research, and he is the author of the best-selling book, Operation Sustainable Human, which explores data-driven climate action. Dr Macdonald is a champion of open access publication; all his research papers and books are available as free digital downloads (and if a physical copy is purchased, ten trees are planted).
Chris has received multiple awards for his pioneering research. He received Cambridge University’s Excellence Award for improving the efficacy of interventions that increase sustainable food consumption. His new approach, ‘nudge by proxy’, was outlined in a research paper published in Research in Psychology and Behavioural Sciences. Chris received the National Innovation Award for a project that uses virtual reality to better translate and visualise emissions data. And for developing, publishing, and evaluating the most effective virtual reality treatment for speech anxiety, Chris received the 2024 Digital Health Award.
Chris recently completed a tour where he exhibited his research at the UK’s leading science and technology events. Dates for the 2025 tour are being finalised.
Dr Macdonald says, “It was an honour to win the 40 Under 40 Award in the Science and Innovation category. I would like to say a huge thank you to Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge. The College goes above and beyond to support innovators. I am proud to be part of this great organisation and its inspiring community.”
To find out more, you can contact Dr Chris Macdonald here.
You can read his latest research paper here.
