About us

President: Oscar O'Flanagan

Oscar first played quizbowl as an undergraduate at Imperial College London, while also helping to run both the History society and Quiz society. After a year out from studying, during which he managed the UK Quizbowl blog and did a bit of writing for various tournaments, he is now starting a PhD at Imperial in climate physics. Oscar's aims as president include getting more universities involved in quizbowl and encouraging more students to get into quiz writing. His non-quiz interests include classical guitar, the Russian Revolution, and playing old titles in the Total War series.

Treasurer: Sam Moore

Sam is the Treasurer for UKQB, and has played quizbowl for the last 7 years. He is currently finishing a PhD in Cosmology at Durham University. In his spare time, he can be found reading postmodern literature and pretending to pursue other intellectual hobbies.

Secretary: Kai Madgwick

Kai is UKQB’s Secretary, as well as a PhD student in Artificial Intelligence at Manchester University. They have played quizbowl for 3 years at Durham during their integrated masters in Physics and Astronomy, and were president of its quiz society for 2 years during that period. When not thinking about quiz, coding, or astrophysics, they can usually be found drumming, listening to history podcasts or trying to make their way through their ever-increasing backlog of albums to listen to.

Tournament Supervisor: Rhys Lewis

Rhys is about to start a year’s masters in maths at the University of Sheffield after having spent three years doing a lot of quizbowl with Cambridge during undergraduate, including being the society president for a year. As well as maths and quizzing, Rhys enjoys playing music, as a keen cellist and conductor, and enjoys the highs, and more so lows, of following Liverpool Football Club and the England Cricket Team.

Blog Manager: Abbie Jackson

Abbie is UKQB’s blog manager, updating you all on the quizzing calendar and recounting the year’s biggest events as they happen. This is despite her only involvement in a quiz society being a single term at Warwick, and despite routinely having to ask her teammates which events she actually attended that year, which is a level of memory recall truly unprecedented in the world of Competitive Memory Recalling.

When not in a Zoom call trying to remember the order of the Chinese dynasties, Abbie can usually be found in her room listening to some arthouse band from the late 70s, drawing maps of her latest Civilization game, and pretending to be in the shower every time the job centre calls.

Outreach Officer: Danny Lardner

Danny Lardner started playing quiz(bowl) in 2020 while studying a Geography degree at Sheffield. During that time, he helped to resurrect the Quiz Society at Sheffield and made sure as many people as possible were playing quizbowl. Outside of the above, he spends the rest of his time buying books, playing football, falling off of bouldering walls, or being paid to pack the jam doughnuts at Tesco.

Communications Officer: Thomas Hart

Thomas is UKQB’s Communications Officer, providing a crucial link between us and the audience we seek to serve. He played student quizbowl for 4 years while studying maths at Warwick. When not quizzing, writing quiz questions, or doing his actual job, he can be found cycling, repeatedly listening to the same 15 or so Stereophonics songs, and bingewatching MasterChef Australia.

Social Media Manager: Bethany Howard

Bethany is UKQB’s social media manager, and she hopes that her many years of being terminally online will lend themselves well to the role. She is currently in her third year studying biomedical engineering at Imperial College London, where she’s the chair of the quiz society.

When she’s not quizzing or struggling through her degree you’ll probably find her listening to and writing about pop music, watching motorsports or doing a jigsaw puzzle.

Safeguarding Officer: Lillian Crawford

Lillian is UKQB’s Safeguarding Officer, ensuring that everyone feels comfortable taking part in quiz. She served as President of the Cambridge University Quiz Society while reading History and then Film at Trinity College, Cambridge, and is now completing a PhD on Screen Two at the BBC and Royal Holloway, University of London. Outside of quizzing, Lillian works as a freelance culture writer and programmer, including programming “relaxed” screenings and events for neurodivergent audiences.

Digital Content Officer: Jamie Burchett

Jamie helped to revive quizbowl at Southampton. He studies (theoretical) film, but has a background in practical filmmaking and video editing, and is familiar with recording footage and editing on both Adobe Premiere Pro and Davinci Resolve.

Ordinary Member: Ben Russell Jones

BRJ credits playing quizbowl to saving his undergraduate career at the University of Edinburgh, and wants to give back through helping with modding and writing for tournaments. Outside of quizzing, he can be found protecting his customers as a nightman at a hotel, reading modernist literature, and crying when Swansea City lose (again).

Ordinary Member: Caitlin Libeaut

Caitlin is a UKQB Ordinary Committee Member and has just finished her first year of Quizbowl whilst studying psychology at the University of Warwick. She now somehow is President of Warwick QuizSoc and hopes to keep it running smoothly. When not trying to get at least one question right in practice, Caitlin can usually be found in some body of water or watching the same two shows on repeat.

Ordinary Member: Ali Izzatdust

Ali is an UKQB Ordinary Committee Member. He played quizbowl throughout his undergraduate degree at Oxford, followed by a master’s at UCL and Queen Mary University of London. Ali is now pursuing his PhD in Intellectual History at QMUL. When not quizzing or reading political thought, Ali enjoys playing basketball and looking at Renaissance art.

Ordinary Member: Allison Owens

Allison is a UKQB Ordinary Committee member who has been playing QuizBowl since 2022.

They are finishing up a Masters in Linguistics at the University of Sheffield, where they were previously on committee for the Quiz Society. When Allison isn’t quizzing, you may find them talking about minimalist syntax, knitting, crocheting or baking.

Ordinary Member: Teddy Fogel

Teddy is a UKQB Ordinary Committee Member, currently in his second year of both quizbowl and a degree in economics at the University of Birmingham, where he is provisional competitive quizzing secretary. His interests as a committee member include improving resources for players from less established societies and creating more opportunities for online competition and interaction.

When not trying to convince people that economics questions can be good, Teddy can be found playing the piano and any number of percussion instruments or watching whatever sport happens to be available at the time.

Ordinary Member: Abigail Tan

Abigail is a UKQB Ordinary Committee Member. She played student quizbowl from 2020 to 2023 while studying maths at Cambridge. This will be her third year serving on committee, in which she hopes to continue contributing to the smooth running of the circuit. When not spending her free time editing quiz and attempting to answer history questions in open tournaments, Abigail can often be found listening to podcasts, looking at ancient Persian inscriptions, or reading.

Ordinary Member: Joseph Krol

Joseph Krol is an Ordinary Member on the UKQB committee, in which role he mainly focuses on tournament organisation. Outside of quiz, his other hobbies include writing, listening to an alarming number of albums, and feeling a vague sense of dread when describing himself in the third person.

Ordinary Member: Michael Kohn

Michael played student quizbowl for Imperial, Cambridge and Durham between 2018 and 2024. He has been on the last five committees in various roles, serving as President last year. In addition to the occasional unwanted advice, as an OCM Michael will help oversee Briticising ACF Fall and BSQC. When not drawing knot diagrams as part of a PhD in Mathematics at Durham, Michael can usually be found conducting or playing music, tennis, reading, or listening to famous albums.

Ordinary Member: Agnijo Banerjee

Agnijo is a UKQB Ordinary Committee Member who has been playing student quizbowl since 2022 for Cambridge. They are in their first year of being on the UKQB Committee and hope to contribute towards maintaining a welcoming environment throughout the quiz circuit and towards the smooth running of the circuit. They are currently in their third year of a PhD in maths.

Ordinary Member: Omer Keskin

Omer is a UKQB Ordinary Committee Member in his 4th year of a Computer Science degree at Oxford University. He has been playing student quizbowl since 2021 and has been the nominal IT officer of Oxford University Quiz Society since 2022. As a committee member he will probably help the committee do stuff. When not working on his degree or quizzing, Omer can be found reading novels or playing Grand Strategy Games.

Ordinary Member: Ian Bayley

Ian is a UKQB Ordinary Committee Member with current responsibility for the website. He played QuizBowl as a student 20-25 years ago where he represented Imperial College London and Balliol College Oxford on University Challenge. He has been continuously involved with quiz competitions ever since. He teaches programming and cybersecurity modules at Oxford Brookes.

Ordinary Member: Sam Foo

Sam is a UKQB Committee Ordinary Member and a 3rd-year Philosophy student at the University of Cambridge, where they are also Squad Captain of Cambridge Quiz Soc. Sam’s engagement with quiz bowl stretches back to 2019 in Singapore where they played high school quiz bowl. In the infinitesimally small snatches of time when their mind is not fixated on something quiz-relevant, they can usually be found trying the neighbours’ patience with their attempts to sing.

Ordinary Member: Aaron Storr

Aaron is an Ordinary Member of the UKQB Committee. He has previously studied Politics at the University of Sheffield, and was formerly the Publicity Officer for Sheffield QuizSoc. On the extremely rare occasions where he is not quizzing, you might find him rambling about some of his other hyperfixations such as Rubik's Cubes, Grand Strategy games, and contemporary Chinese politics.