Ian Whates lives in a village in Cambridgeshire with his partner, Helen, and their pets – a manic cocker spaniel and a tailless black cat. A fan of books in general and science fiction in particular for as long as he can remember, Ian is the author of some 40 published short stories and two novel sequences – the ‘Noise’ books (space opera) with Solaris, and the ‘City of 100 Rows’ trilogy (urban fantasy with steampunk overtones and SF underpinning) with Angry Robot. He is also an editor, having edited Solaris Rising for Solaris and a number of anthologies and other volumes through his own award-winning independent publisher, NewCon Press; not to mention co-editing with Ian Watson a couple of Mammoth titles for Constable and Robinson. Ian has served a term as a director of SFWA, and was proud to be invited onto the BSFA committee in September 2007.

Aged 11 I sat in English class staring at the cover of Arthur C Clarke’s “Of Time and Stars” and after subsequently reading that collection there was only ever one genre for me. I soon discovered Asimov and EE Smith and have loved epic space opera and hard SF ever since but I also discovered Simak and Bradbury and grew to love humanistic SF and then via Tolkein, Donaldson and Gemmell fell in love with Fantasy. As well as reading Clarke aged 11 I also watched the original release of Star Wars and was blown away by it, whilst getting my weekly fix of Star Trek on BBC2 and any SF I could listen to on Radio 4 (including H2G2). Thus my love and appreciation of SF spans all categories, all media and all eras. I became Treasurer back in 2003 and still consider it a great honour. I review very occasionally but consider myself simply a reader and a fan.

I became a historian of medieval technology for much the same reasons that I’ve always read science fiction and fantasy: both involve exploring unfamiliar places and figuring out peoples’ relationships with the objects and innovations in their lives. I teach history online for an American university, am secretary to the Science Fiction Foundation, and have written articles on (among other things) the way food is used in fantasy novels. My hobbies mostly have to do with food and words, whether eating good things while traveling, reading restaurant reviews, tracing etymologies, or editing Vector. Now and again it strikes me how odd it is that I, who started off – and am still also – an American, am now, by editing a British magazine, correcting other Englishes.

Martin Lewis became reviews editor for the BSFA at the beginning of 2010. Since 2001, he has reviewed for a number of publications including SF Site, The Alien Online, The New York Review Of Science Fiction and Strange Horizons. He has also written for both Vector and Matrix and produced the SF Writers On SF Film pamphlet for the BSFA. He was a judge for the Arthur C Clarke Award in 2010 and 2011. Martin lives in East London and blogs at Everything Is Nice.

A self-styled stalwart of the British science fiction scene, Donna Scott has worked for the likes of Angry Robot Books, Solaris, Black Libraries, Games Workshop and Immanion Press as copy-editor and proofreader, which is a very cool thing. Donna co-edits dark fantasy magazine Visionary Tongue, which was established in 1995 by fantasy writer Storm Constantine and features prose, poetry, interviews and insights into the weird and wonderful world of creativity. She also writes a lot of stuff, mainly short things. As first ever official Bard of Northampton and regular MC of Northampton’s premier new acts/new material comedy night, We are Most Amused at The Victoria, Donna has performed stand-up and poetry all over the UK, playing to crowds big and small, from pubs and arthouses to festival crowds. Likes: cider, carrot cake, paradoxical quandaries. Dislikes: okra, people who shun coats/cardies, losing.

All of my siblings work in computing in one form or another so I guess it was inevitable that, after a few years as a chef, I would end up in IT. It’s also fair to say that I was drawn to the industry by early cyberpunk and tech novels, William Gibson and Neil Stephenson being particularly formative in my interest in tech and futurism. Now I work as a business intelligence consultant and specialise in opening up the power of information. In my spare time, I offer services in web development and enjoy helping organisations like the BFSA, BFS, Newcon Press and Anarchy Books maximise their online potential. Partnering with a marketing expert, I have recently started up a new company called Beyond the Blurb to help publishers and authors maximise their sales and online exposure.

Tom has been a member of the British Science Fiction Association since, 2004, having attended his first Eastercon that year; an experience which swiftly led to his volunteering to take on the editing of Matrix Magazine, then the BSFA’s main news, media and features publication running alongside Vector and Focus. While Tom has since stepped down from the daily running of the organisation he remains an active member of the BSFA committee with an expertise in publicity, marketing and development. Tom is also the current director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction literature, the UK’s most prestigious genre prize, and can often be found speaking at SF conventions and events and writing for places like SFX magazine and the Huffington Post. www.twitter.com/clarkeaward