Invited Speakers

The following persons have been invited and accepted to take part as invited speakers.

Rob Hagendijk, University of Amsterdam
Risk, uncertainty and the development of biotechnology

ob Hagendijk is the Dean of the International School for Humanities and Social Sciences of the Universiteit van Amsterdam and associate professor of the political science department. He has studied public controversies about science and technology for more than 20 years. He has done empirical work on HIV research, nuclear energy, GM food and patient advocacy initiatives with respect to health genomics. Theoretically he works from a cultural constructivist and pragmatic perspective. He is a founding member of the Science and Democracy Network and of STAGE - a European Commission funded thematic network that recently completed an eight-country study of public participation in decision-making with respect to critical issues in science and technology. He was president of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology, EASST from 1996 to 2000.

Ortwin Renn is Director of the non-profit company DIALOGIK, a research institute for the investigation of communication and participation processes in environmental policy making, and full professor and chair of environmental sociology of the State University in Stuttgart. Among many commitments, Renn is member of the panel on "citizen participation" of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, he is the chair of the German Federal Committee on the Harmonization of Risk Standards, chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Foundation "Precautionary Risk Management", and the State´s Scientific Committee for Environmental Research. Renn has published more than 30 books and 250 articles in journals and edited volumes.

Nick Pidgeon, professor in psychology, is currently Director of the Centre for Environmental Risk at the University of East Anglia. His research looks at how public attitudes and institutional responses form a part of the dynamics of a range of technological controversies, including those of radioactive waste, climate change and GM agriculture. In his work he has consistently argued that public policy decisions about controversial technologies need to be sensitive to public values if fair and equitable outcomes are to be found. Professor Pidgeon was a member of the Royal Society / Royal Academy of Engineering nanotechnology study group which reported to the UK government in July 2004.

René von Schomberg is an agricultural scientist and philosopher. He has his Ph.D. in Philosophy (Frankfurt, Germany) and in Science and Technology Studies (Twente, Netherlands).
He has published numerous books and articles, most recently the book: "Implementing the Precautionary Principle: Perspectives and Prospects" (co-edited by Elizabeth Fisher, Judith Jones and René von Schomberg). In the talk he will give his own personal views on the Precautionary Principle as expressed in his publications.

Elizabeth Atherton, UK Nirex Ltd
Social aspects of radioactive waste management

Elizabeth Atherton works for UK Nirex Limited, the radioactive waste management organization in the UK. Elizabeth oversees the social science research that Nirex undertakes and investigates how the environmental assessment directives can be used to structure the decision-making process related to radioactive waste management to ensure stakeholders are fully involved and all the issues are addressed.

Elizabeth has a Ph.D. in intertemporal decision making from the University of Manchester. She is a member of the Core Group of the NEA Forum for Stakeholder Confidence and the Chair of the Steering Group for the international research project considering local stakeholder involvement in decision making (CARL).

James C. Lin, Professor of bioengineering, electrical engineering, physiology and biophysics at the University of Illinois-Chicago, is a recipient of the d'Arsonval Medal Award and a past president of the Bioelectromagnetics Society. His research interests include electromagnetics in biology and medicine and biological interactions of radio-frequency-microwave radiation. He has served as chair of the IEEE Committee on Man and Radiation and the International Scientific Radio Union (URSI) Commission on Electromagnetics in Biology and Medicine. Dr. Lin chairs the US National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement (NCRP) Committee on Critical Evaluation of Radio Frequency Radiation Exposure Guidelines. He is the author of several books, the editor of the book series on Advances in Electromagnetic Fields in Living Systems, and the author of numerous journal papers and book chapters.

Eilen Arctander Vik is assistant manager of Aquateam, a consulting company specialized in risk assessment and remediation of chemicals in soil, sediments and water. She is responsible for Aquateam's activities on risk assessment related to contaminated soil and water and industrial discharges. She took the initiative to develop a harmonised environmental risk assessment system for regulating offshore chemicals (the CHARM model), which presently is implemented within the Oslo and Paris commission covering all offshore chemicals used in the North Sea. Among numerous commitments, Eilen has also acted as expert advisor to the Norwegian State Pollution Control Authority on environmental classification and risk assessment of chemicals (EU commission).