Rim Turkmani is a Research Fellow at the Conflict and Civil Society Research Unit in the Department of International Development at LSE, where she directs the Syria conflict research programme. Her policy-oriented research work focuses on identity politics, legitimate governance, transforming war economy it into peace economy and the relationship between local and external drivers of the conflict. She is a member of the Women’s Advisory Board to the UN special envoy to Syria and sits on the advisory board of airwars.org, which monitor the international coalition strikes against ISIS. She directed the project: ‘Crowd-sourcing Conflict and Peace ‘Events’ in the Syrian conflict’ which produced a detailed database of instances of violence and peace-making. She is an Astrophysicist by training, previous Dorothy Hodgkin fellow of the Royal Society and writer/curator on the history Islamic science and culture focusing on the impact of the Arabic/Islamic science on the scientific revolution in the 17th century.