Director of animal protection campaign organisation Uncaged.
Green Party Town Councillor in Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire.

I have just been awarded a national prize - the Arthur Ling Memorial Award - for my groundbreaking PhD research into animal experimentation.

My research focused on how laws and regulations dealing with animal experiments have developed in Britain over the past 150 years.

Adrian Ling, who initiated the award scheme said: "This establishes Dr Lyons as one of the country's leading authorities on the highly-charged issue of animal testing."

My thesis also earned me the Andrew Gamble Prize for the Outstanding Thesis of 2006-7, awarded by a committee of academics at Sheffield University's Department of Politics.

My PhD research was an epic process, and it has produced important breakthroughs showing that animal experimentation in the UK is crueller and much more weakly regulated than the public is led to believe.

I hope that by revealing the illegal and secretive world of animal experiments, I can help protect defenceless animals from severe suffering and make British politics more democratic and ethical.