DSIT–KCL Horizon-Scanning on Cyberbiosecurity
I was delighted to be invited to take part in a recent horizon-scanning workshop co-hosted by the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and King’s College London. The event focused on a timely question: What cybersecurity protections, mitigations, and solutions should be considered to address emerging risks associated with the exploitation of common engineering … Continue reading
GESDA’s Anticipation Workshop on Planetarized Humanity
In late March, I had the pleasure of participating in GESDA’s Third Villars Anticipation Workshop, Planetarized Humanity: Rethinking Identity, Society, and Governance in a Technology-Driven World. Set in the stunning alpine village of Villars, Switzerland, the workshop brought together an interdisciplinary group to reflect on how emerging technologies—especially AI—might reshape our societies and our sense … Continue reading
UN CSW69 Parallel Event: Feminist Approaches to Justice
It was a tremendous honour to open one of the ‘Feminist Approaches to Justice’ series this March, held in conjunction with the 69th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69). I attended the event as a member of the International Sociological Association (ISA) Publication Committee and as editor of special … Continue reading
Asilomar at 50
In 1975, a group of leading scientists gathered at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in California to discuss the potential risks of recombinant DNA technology. The result was a landmark moment in the self-governance of the life sciences—a model of proactive ethical reflection that has since shaped decades of science policy and public engagement. This year … Continue reading
UK-US/ UK-Japan Meetings on Synbio
Over the past few months, two bilateral academic meetings on engineering biology have been particularly informative and stimulating. The first was the UK-US Workshop on Bioengineering Solutions for Critical Minerals, held on December 5–6, 2024, at the Earth Galleries of the Natural History Museum in London. The event brought together representatives from the UK Government, the US Department … Continue reading
EP PerMed meetings in Brussels
I was delighted to be appointed as a member of the European Partnership for Personalised Medicines ( EP PerMed)’ Citizen Engagement Board (CEB) since June. In the past three months, we’ve met online to comment on a pilot public survey (now out in Italy in Italian!). Apart from virtual meetings, it was wonderful to attend EP … Continue reading
UNESCO Roundtable on Science Communication
At the invitation of UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, I had the great pleasure of contributing to the UNESCO roundtable, ‘Empowering the Global Community Through Scientific Literacy,’ held this week in Paris. I made three suggestions on basis of a draft white paper circulated: 1-Enhancing science literacy is not just about progress or development. … Continue reading
Knowledge Diplomacy
I attended a most rewarding three-day discussion at Wilton Park in late June on the topic of Knowledge Diplomacy. I consider it most rewarding because the event brought together both geographic and disciplinary diversity in examining the respective roles of higher education, academia, and industry in mitigating geopolitical tensions and potentially healing geopolitical divides. I’m … Continue reading
G7 Impact
For the past few months, I’ve been working with Suzanne Sincavage. Krishna Ravi Srinivas, Mei Lin Fung, Trevor Muehlfelder and Marta Bertolaso on a policy brief for the Think 7, the official think tank group of G7. I authored the four recommendations and it was my great pleasure to present the policy brief at the Think 7 in Rome … Continue reading
Sino-Eu Personalised Medicine Trip
I joined the Sino-Eu PerMed project’s Expert Task Force for ELSI at the beginning of this year. Following two online meetings, together with colleagues in Denmark, Italy, Germany, France and the UK, we were able to meet in person this April in China and visited a few research institutions and pharmaceutical companies. It was an … Continue reading
Joy Zhang 