The Montessori Sports Summit 2025 Speaker Story

Steve Lawrence

Data scientist. Researcher on "Relative age effect". Architect. Co-author of "Montessori Architecture". 

 As a data scientist, architect, and co-author of Montessori Architecture, he’ll be giving us an insightful talk on “Relative age effects in school and sports environments” and will be explaining why they occur, how our institutions have made them systemic, and what we can do to mitigate these discriminatory effects.

Steve Lawrence studied Architecture at the University of Bath in the 1970s, subsequently founding the architectural practice of Carrick, Howell & Lawrence in 1982. In 2000, he prepared the original masterplan for the London Olympics.

In 2012, he graduated with a Master’s in International Sports Management from the Johan Cruyff Institute. Since 2000, he has studied relative age effects, writing several papers, including “The average team age method and its potential to reduce relative age effects”, published by Routledge in 2021. As a lifelong proponent of Montessori education, he also co-wrote “Montessori Architecture” with Benjamin Stæhli, published by Park Books in 2023.

This year, in our summit, we’ll discover more on how we can address disparities across various stages and aspects of life, including early childhood development, age, biological maturity, and gender, to foster environments where fairness and opportunity flourish.

An impression of our summit speaker