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Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention (2011)

Chapter: Appendix A: Committee Member Biographies

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee Member Biographies." National Research Council. 2011. Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13130.
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Appendix A

Committee Member Biographies

Roderick J. Flower, Ph.D., D.Sc., FMedSci, FBPharmacolS, FRS (Chair) is professor of biochemical pharmacology at the William Harvey Research lnstitute, Barts, and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Dr. Flower received his postgraduate training at the Department of Pharmacology in the Royal College of Surgeons of England under the supervision of Sir John Vane. He moved with Vane when the latter became research and development (R&D) director at the Wellcome Foundation in Kent and worked there as part of his prostaglandin research team until 1984. Dr. Flower then served as chair of pharmacology at the University of Bath, where he also served as head of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology (1987-1989). ln 1989, he moved to the medical college of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, where he became a director and founding member of the William Harvey Research lnstitute and started a new Department of Biochemical Pharmacology. He served as head of the institute (1998-2002) and was also Wellcome Principal Research Fellow (1994-2007). His main interests are the mechanism of action of anti-inflammatory drugs including Cox inhibitors and glucocorticoid steroids. Dr. Flower has published more than 300 peer-reviewed research papers and holds several patents. He has trained numerous Ph.D. students, hosted many researchers from overseas in his group, and made important contributions to undergraduate teaching. He has served on several editorial and scientific boards and was president of the British Pharmacological Society (2000-2003). Dr. Flower’s honors include the Thomas Woodcock Physiology Prize (University of Sheffield, 1972), British Pharmacological Society’s Sandoz Prize (1978), Gaddum Memorial Lecture and Medal of The British

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee Member Biographies." National Research Council. 2011. Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13130.
×

Pharmacological Society (1986), Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999), Fellow of Academia Europeae (2001), William Withering Medal of the Royal College of Physicians (2003), Lifetime Achievement Award of the lnternational Society of lnflammation Associations (2005), and Bayliss-starling Prize Lecture of the Physiological Society (2006). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2003. Dr. Flower served on the NRC Committee for the lnternational Outreach Activities on Biosecurity: A Workshop on Building Bridges Between the Scientific and Policy Communities and also on the organizing committee for a 2006 Royal Society-lAP-ICSU workshop on developments in the life sciences and potential implications for the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

Hernan Chaimovich, Ph.D. is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry of the lnstitute of Chemistry, Universidade de Säo Paulo, Brazil, and superintendent general of the Butantan Foundation. He received a degree in biochemistry from the Universidad de Chile, worked with Osvaldo Cori in apyrase enzymology, and spent 2.5 years in the United States working under the supervision of C. A. Bunton (University of California, Santa Barbara) and F. H. Westheimer (Harvard University) in physical organic chemistry. He returned to Chile as an assistant professor of biochemistry and moved to Brazil in 1969, first as a FAPESP fellow in the Department of Physiology at the Faculty of Medicine, Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and later in the Department of Biochemistry of the lnstitute of Chemistry, USP, where he became a full professor in 1985. Dr. Chaimovich’s research is in interfacial effects on chemical and biological reactivity using micelles and vesicles as models. The contributions of his group, including theoretical and experimental studies of the effect of micelles and vesicles on a number of chemical reactions, have contributed to dissect the effect of these aggregates on chemical reactivity. Dr. Chaimovich is a co-chair of the lnterAmerican Network of Academies of Sciences (IANAS) and is a full member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences of Latin America (ACAL). He is also a fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), being a corresponding member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences. He has received several prizes, including the Grand-Cross of the National Order of Scientific and Technological Merit, the highest scientific distinction conceded by the Brazilian government. Dr. Chaimovich has also recently served as vice-president for external relations for the lnternational Council for Science (ICSU) and has encouraged its unions to become engaged in biosecurity issues.

Nancy D. Connell, Ph.D. is a professor of infectious disease at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-New Jersey Medi-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee Member Biographies." National Research Council. 2011. Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13130.
×

cal School and director of the UMDNJ Center for BioDefense and the Biosafety Level 3 Facility of UMDNJ’s Center for the Study of Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens. She chairs the university’s Institutional Biosafety Committee, and she has worked with several international programs on dual use issues. She is past chair of the National Institutes of Health’s Center for Scientific Review Study Section HIBP (Host Interactions with Bacterial Pathogens), which reviews bacterial-pathogenesis submissions to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. She is current chair of the F13 Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Fellowship Panel. Dr. Connell’s involvement in biological weapons control began in 1984, when she was chair of the Committee on the Military Use of Biological Research, a subcommittee of the Council for Responsible Genetics, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Connell received her Ph.D. in microbial genetics from Harvard University. Her major research focus is in bacterial antibiotic drug discovery.

Andrzej Górski, M.D., Ph.D. is professor of medicine and immunology at the Medical University of Warsaw and vice president of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is board certified in internal medicine with a subspecialty certification in clinical immunology. Dr. Górski received his M.D. (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) degrees from the Medical University of Warsaw and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, USA. He has been a visiting professor at Adelaide Children’s Hospital, Australia, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, the University of London United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals, England, and the Universidad Autonoma, Madrid, Spain. Dr. Górski served as prorector for scientific affairs & international cooperation (1993-1996) and as rector (1996-1999) of the Medical University of Warsaw. From 1999-2007 he was also director of the L. Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Dr. Górski has authored more than 100 scientific publications, serves as the editor in chief of Archivum Immunologiae et Therapiae Experimentalis, and has served as a member of the editorial board of Science & Engineering Ethics. His awards include the Meller Award for excellence in cancer research from Sloan-Kettering Institute, the ICRETT Award and the Yamagiwa-Yoshida Award from the International Union Against Cancer, the J. Sniadecki Memorial Award from the Polish Academy of Sciences (the highest award in medical sciences in Poland), and the Gloria Medicinae awarded by the Polish Medical Association. In addition, Dr. Górski is a member of the Committee for Ethics in Science at the Polish Academy of Sciences, a member of the Committee for Ethics in Science at the Ministry of Science, Head of the Bioethics Committee, Ministry of Health, and represents Poland in the Forum of National Ethics Committees to the European Commission.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee Member Biographies." National Research Council. 2011. Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13130.
×

Li Huang, Ph.D. received his Ph.D. in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, in 1988. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry of the School of Hygiene and Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, from 1988 to 1993. He became assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Pomona College, California, in 1993 before joining the faculty in the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 1996. He was appointed to full professorship in 1998 and is now director-general of the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Huang’s scientific work concerns the isolation and biotechnological exploitation of microorganisms and their genes from various environments. He has also been working on biosecurity-related issues since 2001, and he is currently a member of the Biosecurity Working Group of the InterAcademy Panel (IAP).

Maxwell Otim Onapa, Ph.D., M.Sc. is the deputy executive secretary of the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), where he has been stationed since 2006. His responsibilities include providing leadership and technical support in the design, development, and implementation of programs and projects. He also served as chair of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Assessing the Current State of Knowledge Pertaining to the Meaning and Scope of Biosafety and Biosecurity in the Context of Uganda, which published the report, The Scope of Biosafety and Biosecurity in Uganda: Policy Recommendations for the Control of Associated Risks (2010). Previously, Dr. Otim Onapa worked at the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) as a research officer, infectious disease, Livestock Health Research Institute (2000-2006) and as a research assistant (1994-1999). From 1992 to 1994, he had worked as a veterinary research officer, microbiology, Animal Health Research Centre, Entebbe. Academically, Dr. Otim Onapa has a Ph.D. from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen; an M.Sc. (Tropical Veterinary Epidemiology) from the Free University of Berlin/ Addis Ababa University; and a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVM) from Makerere University, Uganda. Dr. Otim Onapa has published widely and has had additional professional training in various areas including strategic management, molecular diagnostic polymerase chain reaction training, laboratory diagnosis of avian influenza, among others. He has also presented as a member of papers on biosafety and biosecurity in different international forums.

M. Iqbal Parker, Ph.D. received his B.Sc. in biochemistry and microbiology in 1974, his B.Sc. (Honors) in 1975, and his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1979 from the University of Cape Town. Dr. Parker is currently director of the Cape Town component of the International Center for Genetic Engi-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee Member Biographies." National Research Council. 2011. Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13130.
×

neering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), professor in medical biochemistry at the University of Cape Town, and director of the South African Medical Research Council’s Oesophageal Cancer Research Group based at the University of Cape Town. Before taking up the post with the ICGEB, he was director of the School of Biomedical Sciences and head of the Division of Medical Biochemistry at the University of Cape Town and subsequently, the deputy dean for research in the Health Science Faculty. Dr. Parker is past-president of the South African Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and was a key member in founding of the Federation African Societies on Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and is currently its treasurer. He has been elected onto the IUBMB Executive Committee on Symposia and also the Chair of the Wood-Whelan Fellowship Committee. He is a founding member, current secretary general, and chair of the Biosafety Committee of the South African Academy of Sciences.

Andrew Pitt, D. Phil. is chair of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Chemical Biology, School of Health and Life Sciences at Ashton University in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Until 2011 he was reader and director of the Sir Henry Wellcome Functional Genomics Facility (SHWFGF) at the University of Glasgow. He also served as director of the Doctoral Training Centre in Proteomics and as managing director of the RASOR Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration in Proteomic Technologies, which brings together engineers, physical scientists, and biologists across the Universities of Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Strathclyde. Dr. Pitt’s multidisciplinary research involves proteomics, protein science, post-technologies, biochemistry, biomolecular analysis, and systems and synthetic biology. His research focuses particularly on the generation of new technologies for modern protein research, biomarker discovery and identification, complex biochemical pathways and molecular networks, integration and modeling for systems biology, and clinical applications of proteomics. He is a member of the Royal Society Standing Committee on Scientific Aspects of International Security (2007-present), and a member of the Executive Board of the British Society for Proteome Research (2007-present), and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Proteomics.

Ralf Trapp, Ph.D. is an independent consultant who has worked and published extensively in the fields of chemical and biological weapons disarmament and nonproliferation. His research includes the impact of advances in science and technology on the regimes pertaining to chemical and biological weapons, national implementation measures for the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention (such as legislation, regulations, training, enforcement, self-regulation in industry and academia, oversight, and education), and other aspects of preparedness and consequence management. He formerly served as

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee Member Biographies." National Research Council. 2011. Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13130.
×

secretary of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (1998-2006), which administers the Chemical Weapons Convention. He also served as legal coordinator (consultant) for the European Union Joint Action in Support of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (2007-2008), which was executed by the Bio-Weapons Prevention Project, Geneva, Switzerland. Dr Trapp is an external member of the Academy of Sciences of Bologna and a fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). He received his Dr. rer. nat. (Ph.D.) from the Technical University “Carl Schorlemmer” Leuna-Merseburg (former German Democratic Republic) in 1978 and Dr. sc. nat. from the GDR Academy of Sciences, Leipzig, in 1986.

Lloyd Whitman, Ph.D., M.S. joined the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as the deputy director in April 2008. He received a B.S. in physics from Brown University (with honors, magna cum laude) and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Cornell University. After a National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at NIST, he joined the research staff at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). At NRL, Dr. Whitman was most recently the head of the Surface Nanoscience and Sensor Technology Section, a multidisciplinary research group working at the nexus of nanoscience, biotechnology, and microsystems. He led a diverse portfolio of research studying semiconductor, organic, and biomolecular nanostructures, their use in novel functional surfaces, and their integration into advanced sensor systems for national security applications. In addition to leading research at NRL, Dr. Whitman served as a science advisor to the Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Chemical and Biological Defense and Chemical Demilitarization Programs. In this capacity, he represented the Department of Defense on the National Science and Technology Council, Committee on Technology Subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology. Dr. Whitman has more than 140 publications and patent applications in the areas of nanoscience and sensor technology, and numerous media citations and awards, including the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee Member Biographies." National Research Council. 2011. Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13130.
×
Page 133
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee Member Biographies." National Research Council. 2011. Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13130.
×
Page 134
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee Member Biographies." National Research Council. 2011. Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13130.
×
Page 135
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee Member Biographies." National Research Council. 2011. Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13130.
×
Page 136
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee Member Biographies." National Research Council. 2011. Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13130.
×
Page 137
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee Member Biographies." National Research Council. 2011. Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13130.
×
Page 138
Next: Appendix B: National and International Scientific Organizations Relevant to the BWC »
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During the last decade, national and international scientific organizations have become increasingly engaged in considering how to respond to the biosecurity implications of developments in the life sciences and in assessing trends in science and technology (S&T) relevant to biological and chemical weapons nonproliferation. The latest example is an international workshop, Trends in Science and Technology Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention, held October 31 - November 3, 2010 at the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

Life Sciences and Related Fields summarizes the workshop, plenary, and breakout discussion sessions held during this convention. Given the immense diversity of current research and development, the report is only able to provide an overview of the areas of science and technology the committee believes are potentially relevant to the future of the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BWC), although there is an effort to identify areas that seemed particularly ripe for further exploration and analysis. The report offers findings and conclusions organized around three fundamental and frequently cited trends in S&T that affect the scope and operation of the convention:

  • The rapid pace of change in the life sciences and related fields;
  • The increasing diffusion of life sciences research capacity and its applications, both internationally and beyond traditional research institutions; and
  • The extent to which additional scientific and technical disciplines beyond biology are increasingly involved in life sciences research.

The report does not make recommendations about policy options to respond to the implications of the identified trends. The choice of such responses rests with the 164 States Parties to the Convention, who must take into account multiple factors beyond the project's focus on the state of the science.

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