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
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
ISA Publications Committee Meeting
I was thrilled to visit Taipei again after the pandemic, this time for the International Sociological Association’s executive committee meeting. More specifically, I was there in my capacity as the editor for Current Sociology Monographs and SSIS book series. It was great to spend a few days with this group of lovely people. Academia Sinica … Continue reading
New Project on Industrial Biotechnology
I’m thrilled to lead the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and policy components of the BBSRC funded project, Engineering Biology Mission Hub for Environmental Processing and Recovery of Metals (ELEMENTAL). Recovering critical minerals and metals will play a critical strategic role in circular economy and in pollution reduction/prevention. Key technical breakthroughs, such as new engineering … Continue reading
Bangaluru fieldwork
I had an amazingly productive week in Bangaluru at the beginning of January, discussing science diplomacy and global governance in synthetic biology and biobanking with natural and social scientists. I am so grateful to Suryesh K Namdeo, PhD and everyone at the DST Centre for Policy Research – IISc Bangalore for their rich insights and fantastic questions. It was … Continue reading
Joy Zhang 