Two academics from the University of Nottingham have been conferred Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Professor Carl Macrae, of Nottingham University Business School and Professor Giovanni Facchini, of the School of Economics, are among the 56 leading social scientists to have been recognised for excellence in their fields and their wider contributions to the social sciences for public benefit.

The Academy’s Fellowship is made up of distinguished individuals from academic, public, private and third sectors, across the full spectrum of the social sciences. Through leadership, scholarship, applied research, policymaking, and practice, they have helped to deepen the understanding of, and address, some of the toughest challenges facing our society and the world.

All Academy Fellows are conferred following independent and robust peer review by the Academy’s Nominations Committee.

Carl Macrae, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Psychology in the Nottingham University Business School, focuses on the challenges of regulating risk and managing safety in complex, safety-critical sectors like healthcare and transport. His work is particularly concerned with how organisations investigate and learn from disruptive events and how regulation can enable resilience and improvement.

In 2021, Professor Macrae was appointed as the National Professional Advisor for Patient Safety at the Care Quality Commission, England’s regulator of health and care, advising on new approaches to improving safety, culture and learning. Previously, his research prompted a Parliamentary Select Committee inquiry which resulted in the establishment in 2017 of England’s first national safety investigation agency for healthcare, the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB).

He has acted as Specialist Advisor and been called as an expert witness to Parliamentary inquiries on these issues and associated legislation, and he advised and intensively supported HSIB during its initial design and establishment.

Giovanni Facchini is a Professor of Economics, the Director of the Nottingham Centre for Globalization and Economic Policy, and a Research Fellow of Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), CES-Ifo Institute, and IZA Institute of Labor Economics. His research has focused on three main themes: the economics and politics of international migration; international trade policy and more recently the economics of race and gender.

Professor Facchini’s scholarly work has been published in the leading outlets in economics, and has been supported – among others – by grants by the ESRC, the European Commission, the NORFACE consortium, the Volkswagen Stiftung and the World Bank. He has served as consultant to the IMF, the OECD and the World Bank.

From left to right – Professor Giovanni Facchini and Professor Carl Macrae

Professor Todd Landman, Pro-Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Social Sciences said: “I am delighted that the University of Nottingham has two new fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences, with both coming from the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Their success points to the strength and value of the research being undertaken in the faculty, and is well-deserved recognition of both Professor Macrae and Professor Facchini’s contributions to wider society.”

Will Hutton FAcSS, President of the Academy of Social Sciences said: “The Academy of Social Sciences is delighted to welcome an excellent range of highly distinguished social scientists from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, England, and beyond.

As the work of social science becomes ever more important, we look forward to engaging with them in 2023.”

View the full list of new AcSS Fellows alphabetically by institution.