Emerging biotechnologies: technology, choice and the public good

Professor Michael Moran (Chair)

Michael Moran is Professor Emeritus of Government at the University of Manchester. His main interests lie in regulation, especially economic regulation. His publications include Governing the Health Care State (1999), The British Regulatory State (2007) and After the Great Complacence: financial crisis and the politics of reform (2011).

Dr Jane Calvert

Jane Calvert is Reader in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies at the ESRC Innogen Centre, University of Edinburgh. Her broad area of research is the sociology of the life sciences. She is currently studying the emergence and development of systems biology and synthetic biology. She is particularly interested in the role of social scientists in new scientific fields, the differences between biology and engineering, intellectual property and open source, and design and aesthetics in synthetic biology.

Mr Trevor Cook

Trevor Cook is a partner in the international law firm Bird & Bird LLP. He specialises in patent and other intellectual property litigation and advice and life sciences administrative law. In addition to numerous articles and several co-authored publications, he has written the following books – EU Intellectual Property Law, Pharmaceuticals Biotechnology and the Law, A User’s Guide to Patents, A European Perspective as to the Extent to Which Experimental Use, and Certain Other, Defences to Patent Infringement, Apply to Differing Types of Research and The Protection of Regulatory Data in the Pharmaceutical and Other Sectors.

Professor David Edgerton

David Edgerton is Hans Rausing Professor at Imperial College London. He is the Director of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. His most recent books are The Shock of the Old: technology and global history since 1900 (Profile 2007) and Britain’s War Machine: weapons resources and experts in the Second World War (Allen Lane/Penguin, 2011).

Professor Ray Hill

Ray Hill was Head of Licensing and External Research for Europe at Merck, Sharp and Dohme until his retirement in May 2008. He is a pharmacologist with a special interest in pain and headache research and is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and Bristol, Surrey and Strathclyde Universities. He is a non-executive Director of several biotech companies and Honorary Biomedical Business Development Advisor at Imperial College London. He is President Emeritus of the British Pharmacological Society.

Professor Søren Holm

Søren Holm is Professor of Bioethics at the University of Manchester and part-time Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is a medical doctor and philosopher and a former member of the Danish Council of Ethics. He is the former President of the European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care and former Editor in Chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics. He currently edits the journal Clinical Ethics.

Professor Richard A.L. Jones

Professor Jones, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Sheffield, is an experimental physicist whose own research concentrates on the properties of macromolecules at surfaces and interfaces. In his work in nanotechnology he is interested in learning from the principles used by cell biology to create synthetic, functional nanodevices. Professor Jones has also developed a more general interest in nanotechnology and its potential impact on society, and has been extensively involved in public engagement around nanotechnology.

Professor Eli Keshavarz-Moore

Professor Keshavarz-Moore is Professor of Bioprocess Science and Enterprise at University College London. Her research interest is in the bioprocessing of complex macromolecules with therapeutic promise including fusion proteins, antibody fragments (monoclonal and polyclonal), artificial chromosomes and phages; and cells including microbial, mammalian and fungal systems as well as transgenic materials. She is one of the Principal Investigators in the Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre in Bioprocessing. Since 2000, Professor Keshavarz-Moore has led the development and implementation of innovative enterprise training and commercialisation of research opportunities at the bioprocessing/life sciences interface including a leadership programme for Senior Executives in the Bioscience industries.

Professor Noel Sharkey

Noel Sharkey is Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and Professor of Public Engagement at the University of Sheffield (Department of Computer Science). He has moved freely across academic disciplines, lecturing in engineering, philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, artificial intelligence, computer science and robotics as well as lecturing extensively to the public, policy makers and the military. Noel’s core research interest is now in the ethical application of robotics and AI in areas such as military, child care, elder care, policing, telepresence, transport and medicine. He is currently a Leverhulme Research Fellow for an ethical and technical appraisal of Robots on the Battlefield.

Professor Andrew Stirling

Andy Stirling is Professor of Science and Technology Policy and Research Director at SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research) at the University of Sussex. He has a background in natural and social science, working formerly as an archaeologist, then a disarmament and environment activist. For twenty years, he has been an interdisciplinary researcher and policy adviser, focusing on challenges in the governance of science, technology and innovation. He has published widely on these issues and served on several public advisory bodies in the UK and EU.

Professor Patrick Sturgis

Patrick Sturgis is Professor of Research Methodology at the University of Southampton and Director of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods. He is Principal Investigator of the Wellcome Trust Monitor study and President of the European Survey Research Association. His main research interests are in the areas of survey and statistical methods, public opinion and political behaviour, particularly regarding social cohesion and trust and public attitudes to science and technology.

Professor Andrew Tylecote

Andrew Tylecote is Emeritus Professor of the Economics and Management of Technological Change at the University of Sheffield. His background extends across the social sciences, and his research has ranged widely around the broad question: how do social and economic institutions affect technological change and economic development? He has been Treasurer of the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy, and Visiting Professor at Tsinghua and Zhejiang universities, China. He was joint winner of the Myrdal Prize for his book with Francesca Visintin on Corporate governance, finance, and the technological advantage of nations (Routledge, 2007).