A New Odyssey for Public Engagement
Last week, the Centre for Global Science and Epistemic Justice (GSEJ) hosted ‘A New Odyssey for Public Engagement‘ at the British Academy. This small, invitation-only event brought together leading thinkers, science diplomacy experts, and scientists from four continents to explore how the O.D.E.SS.I. framework — Open, Deliberative, Enabling, Sensible and Sensitive, Innovative — can guide global practices of public dialogue on … Continue reading
Engineering and Safeguarding Synthetic Life
I greatly appreciated the thoughtful discussions at the Technical Workshop on Mirror Life (a report will follow soon). It was also a real pleasure to chair the half-day open panel on Safeguarding Synthetic Life at the Engineering and Safeguarding Synthetic Life 2025 conference. Working with such an interdisciplinary panel—Sophie Gilbert, David Relman, Laurie Zoloth, and James Smith, with additional contributions from John Glass and Hiroaki … Continue reading
Modernities, Global Governance, and the Commons
The question of how multiple modernities can be translated into coordinated forms of global governance remains one of the most pressing challenges of our time. For decades, sociologists have emphasised the ‘variety of modernities’—the recognition that different societies chart their own paths of development, shaped by histories, values, and social institutions. Yet, as science and … Continue reading
Care-full Synthesis and the Future of the Synthetic Human Genome
I am honoured to lead Care-full Synthesis, a five-year social science programme associated with Synthetic Human Genome (SynHG) research, led by Professor Jason Chin (Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford), Professor Patrick Cai (University of Manchester), Professor Tom Ellis (Imperial College London and Professor Julian Sales (University of Cambridge). The ability to write large genomes has the … Continue reading
ARIA Summit and Project Kick-off
May was a milestone month as we officially set Futuring Biological Commons—our ARIA-funded project—into motion. The turnaround for postdoc recruitment was incredibly tight, but we were so lucky to have a fantastic group of candidates apply. The interviews were full-on, but genuinely such a pleasure. I’m absolutely thrilled that Oliver and Matthew will be joining the … Continue reading
BEST Masterclass
In early September, I spent a week in Durham to observe the Bioprocess Entrepreneurial Skill Training (BEST) Programme jointly organised by BioProNET2 and E3B Metals in Biology. 18 young scientists with entrepreneurial aspirations were selected for this week long training, which incorporates masterclasses, site visits and a mock start-up pitch at the end. I was … Continue reading
2024 Herbert Gottweis Prize
I’m really honoured to receive Critical Policy Studies’ 2024 Herbert Gottweis Prize for my article on decolonisation and science policies. The prize holds an additional personal significance for me, as I had the privilege of briefly working with Herbert on BIONET, the very first academic project I worked on as a PhD student at the … Continue reading
EU Citizen Engagement on Personalised Medicine
I’m delighted to join the Citizen Engagement Board for the European Partnership for Personalised Medicine (EP PerMed). I’ll be working with the Fondazione Toscana Life Sciences, who is leading EP PerMed’s work package 5 on “International, Transnational, Interregional and Overarching Cooperation”. WP5 also includes citizen engagement activities, both intended to collect information from citizens on … 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 