Michael Punt BA MA PhD ILTA
Professor of Art and Technology, University of Plymouth
International Co-editor, Leonardo
Editor-in-Chief Leonardo Review

Education, Teaching and Research Appointments
1964. – 1968. BA Bath Academy of Art, Fine Art, Sculpture.
1968. – 1970. Toy Designer, Eldon Industries, Middlesex.
1989. – 1990. MA University of East Anglia, Norwich.
1992. – 1996. AIO, University of Amsterdam.
1998. – On-going: Editor-in-Chief, Leonardo Reviews.
1996. – 2000. Columnist, Skrien.
2000. – PhD. University of Amsterdam.

Service:
On-going:

2022. Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal. Board..
2021-2024. Head of FWF PEEK Board
2021. Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal. Board..
2020. Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal. Board.
2019. FWF, Belgium, Fellowship Awards.
2018. AXA Research fund.
2018. National Science Centre, Poland.
2018-2022. Czech Science Foundation.
2018. Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal. Stimulus of Scientific Employment,
2018-2021. FWT Austria, Art and Media Board Member PEEK Awards.
2017. AHRC Creative Clusters Reviewer.
2017. Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal; Cultures and Cultural Production Evaluation Panel.
2016-2022. ESF College of Expert Reviewers.
2016. GCRF Large Gants follow-on-funding panel.
2015. AHRC Fellowships Panel 5. (Chair)
2015. AHRC Fellowships Panel 3. (Chair).
2014. AHRC Research Grants Panel.
2014. AHRC Fellowships Panel 2.
2014. AHRC Fellowships Panel 1.
2014. Reviewer, FWT (Austrian Science Fund).
2014. AHRC Research Grants Panel.
2014. AHRC Fellowships Panel.
2014. AHRC Fellowships Panel.
2013. AHRC Digital Transformations in the Community Panel.
2013. Reviewer, FWT (Austrian Science Fund).
2013. National Endowment for the Humanities, Digging into Data Panel
2013. Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal; Cultures and Cultural Production Evaluation Panel.
2013. AHRC Strategic Reviewers’ Group.
2012. Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal; Cultures and Cultural Production Evaluation Panel.
2012. UK Advisory Council on Cultural Heritage, JHEP.2011.
2011/12. AHRC Research Grant Panel 2
2010. Research Steering Committee. Humanities as a Source of Creativity (HERA).
2010. Metadesign Network, Kyung Hee University S. Korea.
2010. Steering Committee. ISEA 2011.
2010. European Science Foundation, Reviewer Pool
2009. TIF Forum, Yonsei University, Seoul.
2009. Advisor, Technology-Imagination-Future: Journal for Transdisciplinary Knowledge
2008. Academy Science and Arts of Finland. Reviewer.
2008. Scientific Committee. Less Remote. International Congress of Astronauts.
2007. RCUK, Science in Society, Advisory group, RiR Scheme.
2007. Board, Great Western Research.
2007. Contributing Editor, Consciousness, Literature and the Arts.
2007. Reader, Rodopi Press.
2007. Trustee, Jago Eliot Foundation.
2007. Editorial Board, Journal of Writing and Creative Practice.
2006-2010. AHRC Postgraduate Awards Panel.
2005-2016. AHRC Peer Review College.
2003. – Editorial Board, Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media.
2003. – Academic referee. Intellect Books.
2001. – Board. Leonardo Book Series, MIT Press.
2001. – Advisor, academic referee, MIT Press/Leonardo Book Series.
2000. – Leonardo/ISAST International Advisory Board.
1999. – Academic referee, Convergence, Artificial Life and Society.
1998. – Academic Referee, Leonardo.
1998. – Editor-in-Chief, Leonardo Reviews.

Research Grants and Contracts
Large Grants:
2013- 2016 – Co-Investigator, EU FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network, ‘CogNovo:
Cognitive Innovation’. €4.1m. This grant funds 14 PhD bursaries. Parallel to this scheme
Plymouth University also offers 12 UK doctoral bursaries for research at the intersection of
cognition, creativity, the arts and humanities.
2010 – 2013 PI and Project Leader, project ‘Technology, Exchange and Flow: Artistic Media
Practices and Commercial Application’. Funded by HERA, Humanities in the European Research
Area. Value € 1M. Co-investigator, Dr. Martha Blassnigg. (Delivered in collaboration with VU
University Amsterdam, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Eye Film Institute Netherlands,
Institute for Sound and Vision Hilversum).

Small Grants:
2012/13. Principle Investigator, HERA Knowledge Transfer project ‘Advertising and the
Sublime’. Delivered in collaboration with Utrecht University, EYE Film Institute Netherlands and Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. Value €40k. Co-investigator, Dr. M. Blassnigg.
2011 – 2013. Principal Investigator; International Network for Transdisciplinary Research
(INTR), Plymouth. University. Bringing together experts from the sciences and humanities to
develop transdisciplinary methodologies. Value £22,000.
2010. Leverhulme Trust Visiting Fellow Grant (for Prof. Jahrmann at Plymouth).
2007. Project Leader, AHRC ICT Methods Network Workshop: Immersive Vision Theatres and
Strategies for Knowledge Transfer, Value £2.500. Co-investigator, Dr. M. Blassnigg.
2006. Port Eliot, and AFoundation, research grant £6,000.
2005. Wellcome Trust/Theatre Royal Plymouth (TR2), research grant. Physical Theatre and
Knowledge Transfer. £1,000
2005. Wellcome Trust/Theatre Royal Plymouth, small research grant, Theatre of Science.
1992 -1996. Assistent in Opleiding

Bursaries attached to PhD research projects:
2013. MARIE CURIE (INT), PhD Scholarship (four).
2010. CAPES, Brazil PhD Scholarship (two).
2010. HERA (ESF), PhD Scholarship.
2009. UoP, PhD Scholarship.
2009. AHRC, PhD Scholarship.
2008. FCT Portugal, PhD Scholarship.
2006. AHRC, PhD Scholarship.
2005. EPSRC, PhD Scholarship.

Research Degree Completions

Professor Bill Seaman, Thesis: Recombinant Poetics; Emergent Meaning as Examined and Explored within a Specific Generative Virtual Environment (1999).
Dr. Jonathan Bedworth, Thesis: AL Programming for Musical Composition (2001).
Dr. Martha Blassnigg. The Cinema and its Spectatorship: The Spiritual Dimension of the ‘Human Apparatus’ (UoW 2007).
Dr. David MacConville. On The Evolution of Heavenly Spheres. 2013.
Prof. Chris Speed. A Social Dimension for Digital Architectural Practice (2007).
Dr. Stephen Thompson. Industrial Design Discourses (2008).
Dr. Martyn Woodward. Sensual Communication: Toward and Embodied Model of Visual Communication. (ESF)
Dr. John Vines. Aging Futures: Cognitively Inclusive Digital Media Products. (AHRC) (2010)
Dr. Hannah Drayson, Gestalt Biometrics and their Applications; Instrumentation, Objectivity and Poetics. (EPSRC) (2011)
Dr. Joanna Griffin, Changing Space: The Social and Experiential Culture of Spacecraft and the Public Domain (AHRC) (2014).
Dr. Rita Cachao, The Mis-en-abyme of Space: Towards an artistic methodology to approach the ontology of space as a methodological tool. (FTC. 2015)
Dr. Taslima Begum, (Transtechnology Research). Design and Post Colonialism. (UoW. 2015)
Dr. Marcio Rocha. New routes to Human Computer Interaction: Reconciling the Artificial with Human Nature. (2015) (CAPES)
Dr. Claudy Op den Kamp. Copyright Law and the Re-Use of Archival Footage. (2015) (UoP)
Dr. Phil Ellis. Reenacting Television History. ( UoP 2017).
Amanda Egbe. Mphil. Notions on Radical Image Archive Practice. (UoP, 2016)
Dr Edith Doove. Curation and the Inframince. (2017)
Dr Eugenia Stamboliev. Animatronic Robot Morality and Ethics. (UoP 2017)
Dr Abigail Jackson. Autism and Performance Approaches. (2019. AHRC).
Dr Guy Edmonds. Early Cinema and  the Cognitive Impact of Digital Projection (EU 2020)
Dr Agi Haines. Ides Exchange Understanding the Human Object. (UoP 2021)
Dr Jacqui Knight. The Contact Sheet as a Conduit to Creativity. (UoP 2021)
Dr Heidi Morstang. Intuitive Interventions: Constructing Documentary Cinematic Narratives. (UoP)

Current PhD Supervision

Alsaad, A., (2015- ) Creative Psychotherapy including Art (working title) [DoS]
Johara Bellali., [DoS]
Brodskis, B,. (2016-) Post-digital scribing: valuing the point of intersection [DoS]
Crabtree, T. (2017) Sustainable Affordable Housing. [DoS]
De-la-Fosse, C. (2020-) Exploring ASMR as an object (Working title)
Finnegan, P., (2018-) The digital image according to its hieroglyphic and animistic capacities
Guy, L., Artist designed systems in Community Radio. (2018-)
Hutchinson, J. (2014-) A Media-archaeology of Technology and Enchantment [DoS]
Moran, S., (3D3 Scholarship) Symbiont Encounters: Ecological Fictioning and Networked Media. (2018-)
Peres, N. (2014-) Immersive cinematics in medical simulation: interfaces for the patient voice [DoS]
Richardson, J., (2018-) Bringing forth an economics of well-being in everyday life
Schneider, J., (2018-) How can a culture of spontaneity be sustained from within the imperatives of goal/outcome-oriented human endeavour? (working title) [DoS]
Sweeting, J. (2015-) The Impact of Nostalgia on Videogame Form [DoS]
Welsman, L. (2019-) Sublime onto-aesthetics: quantum qualities of art across media [DoS]
Linan Zang, L. (2019-) International Development and KE in Clinical Contexts.

PhD Examining
Dr Joseph Nechvatal, Immersive Ideals/Critical Distances. (1999)
Dr Miroslaw Rogala, Divided We Stand: Interactive Installations. (2001)
Professor Victoria Vesna, Networked Public Spaces: An Investigation into Virtual Embodiment. (2002)
Professor Christa Sommerer, Creating Complexity Through Interaction. (2003)
Dr. Jude James, University of the Arts, Wimbledon. (2003)
David Topping, University of Plymouth. (2008)
Dr. Peter Beyls, University of Plymouth. (2009)
Dr. Mike Leggett, Sydney University of Technology (2009)
Dr. Max Schleser, University of Westminster (2009)

Grants& contracts

Large Grants:
2013- 2016- Contributing-Investigator, (PI Prof Sue Denham) EU FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network, ‘CogNovo: Cognitive Innovation’. €4.1m. This grant funds 14 PhD bursaries. Parallel to this scheme Plymouth University also funds 12 UK doctoral bursaries for research at the intersection of cognition, creativity, the arts and humanities.
2010 – 2013 PI and Project Leader, project “Technology, Exchange and Flow: Artistic Media Practices and Commercial Application”. Funded by HERA, Humanities in the European Research Area. Value € 1M. Co-investigator, Dr. Martha Blassnigg. (Delivered in collaboration with VU University Amsterdam, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Eye Film Institute Netherlands, Institute for Sound and Vision Hilversum).

Small Grants:

2021. HEE and CDF research grant 30k (Digital Literacy)
2022. PIHR, 4k remote electives and VR clinical training.
2023. UoP and HEE, 30k TaACT. https://www.trans-techresearch.net/research/research-projects/simulation-lab/
2024. AHRC. PI. Technology Exchange and Flow: India. (£29k.)
2025. Torbay and South Devon Hospital Trust with UoP. Empathy and Animatronic Simulation. (lit. review and field study) (30k.)
      2012/13. Principle Investigator, HERA Knowledge Transfer project “Advertising and the Sublime”. Delivered in collaboration with Utrecht University, EYE Film Institute Netherlands and Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. Co-investigator, Dr. Martha Blassnigg.  (€ 44k)
      2011 – 2013. Principal Investigator; International Network for Transdisciplinary Research (INTR), Plymouth. University. Bringing together experts from the sciences and humanities to develop transdisciplinary methodologies. Value £22,000.

2010. Leverhulme Trust Visiting Fellow Grant (for Prof. Jahrmann at Plymouth ).
2011. Project Leader, AHRC ICT Methods Network Workshop: Immersive Vision

Theatres and Strategies for Knowledge Transfer, Value £ 2.500. Co-investigator, Dr. Blassnigg.

2006. Port Eliot, and AFoundation, research grant Extraordinary Connections £6,000.
2007. Wellcome Trust/Theatre Royal Plymouth (TR2), research grant. Physical Theatre and Knowledge Transfer. £1,000
2008. Wellcome Trust/ Theatre Royal Plymouth, small research grant, Theatre of Science. 1992-1996. Assistente in Opleiding Film en televisiewetenschap, (Doctoral research bursary) University of Amsterdam.

PhD Bursaries attached to research projects:

2019. Wotelsat, China. PhD Scholarship.
2020. AHRC (3D3) PhD Scholarship.
2021. UoP PhD Scholarship.
2022. NHS England, Amplified Empathy in Clinical Training, PhD Scholarship.
      2016. AHRC, (3D3) PhD Scholarship (two).
      2013. MARIE CURIE (ITN), PhD Scholarship (four).

2013. AHRC, (3D3), Touch Therapy in Autistic Contexts.
2014. CAPES, Brazil PhD Scholarships (two).
2015. HERA, PhD Scholarship.
2016. UoP, PhD Scholarship.
2017. AHRC, PhD Scholarship.
2018. FCT Portugal, PhD Scholarship.
2019. AHRC, PhD Scholarship.
2020. EPSRC, PhD Scholarship.
2021. University of Wales.
2022. University of Wales.