About
DICKY DREAD
Writer • Researcher • Cultural Producer • DJ
Based: Off-grid community, DIY home in mid-Wales, UK
Fields: Anarchism, traveller culture, political ecology, off-grid living, physics, philosophy and culture
Formats: Books, long-form essays, video series, talks, festivals, events
PROFILE
Dicky Dread is a writer, researcher and cultural producer whose work documents and advances anarchism as a lived social practice rather than an abstract political theory. Emerging from sustained engagement with traveller culture, countercultural movements and mutual aid networks, his work combines lived experience with rigorous interdisciplinary research across political theory, anthropology, ecology, science and rewilding.
Across an extensive catalogue of books, talks and cultural projects, Dicky examines how people live outside – and in resistance to – dominant systems of property, money, work and authority. His approach is grounded, historically informed and explicitly anti-authoritarian, rejecting abstraction in favour of material conditions, everyday practices and practical alternatives.
Dicky Dread is the name used for the books, videos, music and wider cultural work of Professor Richard Leach, an internationally recognised researcher in metrology and precision engineering. The two strands of work increasingly overlap through writing and video projects exploring science, philosophy, technology, ecology and alternative ways of living.
CULTURE
Cuckoo Crew – Founder & Organiser
Dicky runs The Cuckoo Crew, a collective that organises festivals, gatherings and events rooted in autonomy, humour and collective care. The crew operates outside commercial festival culture, prioritising self-organisation, participation, free food and community over spectacle and profit.
RESEARCH THEMES
Dicky's writing is characterised by humour, strong internal cross-referencing, careful citation and resistance to ideological simplification.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
- •Public talks and presentations
- •Online interviews and panel discussions
- •Community-based political education
- •Talks, interviews and events linked to Practical Anarchy and other current projects
APPROACH
- •Anti-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian
- •Clear, direct prose without academic gatekeeping
- •Politically committed, analytically rigorous
- •Grounded in lived experience and material conditions
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
(Summary)
ACADEMIC IDENTITY
Professor Richard Leach
BSc MSc PhD DSc CPhys CEng FHEA FInstP
Internationally recognised researcher in precision engineering and metrology. ScholarGPS has ranked him among the top 0.05% of scholars worldwide, including #1 worldwide in Metrology (prior five years, 2025), #1 worldwide in Surface Finish (2024–2025), and #2 worldwide in Metrology (lifetime).
EDUCATION
- • BSc Applied Physics – Kingston University London
- • MSc Industrial Measurement Systems – Brunel University
- • PhD Surface Metrology – University of Warwick
- • DSc Surface Metrology – University of Warwick
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
- • Chair in Metrology, University of Nottingham (2015–present)
- • Principal Research Scientist, National Physical Laboratory (1990–2014)
RESEARCH PROFILE
- • ERC Advanced Grant awardee (2022 - 2028)
- • EPSRC Manufacturing Fellowship awardee (2015 - 2020)
- • h-index: 55 (Scopus), 67 (Google Scholar)
- • Over 22,000 citations
- • More than 500 indexed research publications
- • Author/editor of 9 textbooks, numerous book chapters and international standards
- • Supervised 45 PhD students to date
- • Founder of Taraz Metrology Ltd., a university spin-out company working on sustainable manufacturing
Total career research funding in excess of £35m.
Publications: Google Scholar profile
AWARDS
- • ScholarGPS Highly Ranked Scholar (2024–2025), ranked in the top 0.05% of scholars worldwide
- • #1 worldwide in Metrology (2025, prior five years)
- • #1 worldwide in Surface Finish (2024–2025)
- • #2 worldwide in Metrology (lifetime ranking)
- • Finkelstein Medal from the Institute of Measurement and Control for "notable contributions to measurement internationally" (2019)
- • High-level Expert Status, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
- • Visiting professorships at Harbin Institute of Technology and Loughborough University
- • 75 keynote and invited presentations worldwide