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
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
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
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
Joy Zhang 