Science and Development Network
News, views and information about science, technology and the developing world
Scidev.Net draws on the knowledge and experience of advisors who guide each of our regional and topic gateways. Our advisors ensure that the service we provide is timely, accurate and authoritative.
To follow.
Hebe Vessuri (chair)
Hebe Vessuri is a senior researcher and head of the Department of Science Studies at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC). She is president of the Latin America Scientific Committee of UNESCO's Forum on Higher Education, Research, and Knowledge and editor-in-chief of UNESCO's International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) journal. Hebe is a former vice president of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. She is a Council member of United Nations University (UNU) and sits on a number of other scientific committees, including the International Human Development Programme on Global Change (IHDP) and the International Council for Science committee for scientific planning and review. She received the 2006 National Science Award, from the Venezuelan Ministry of Science and Technology.
Organisation: Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research
Country: Venezuela
Carlos Abeledo
Carlos Abeledo is a professor of science policy and director of the graduate programme of science and technology policy at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is also vice-president of Argentina’s Asociación Ciencia Hoy. From 1984 to 1989 he was president of CONICET, the Argentine National Council for Scientific and Technological Research. From 1991 to 1997 he was a science and technology specialist at the Inter American Development Bank. He holds an undergraduate degree in physical chemistry from the University of Buenos Aires and a PhD in chemical physics at Northwestern University, United States. Between 1961 and 1976 he held posts at the University of Buenos Aires, the University of Chile and Brandeis University, United States. Has been a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s National Magnet Laboratory and at Bell Telephone Laboratories, both in the United States.
Organisation: University of Buenos Aires
Country:Argentina
Javier Crúz
Javier Crúz studied physics at Mexico’s National University (UNAM) and has an MSc in applied mathematics from Brown University (USA). He has worked as a science journalist in several media, including radio and TV. He launched the science page at REFORMA, a Mexican daily newspaper in 1994, and now heads UNAM’s science journalism unit. He regularly contributes to SciDev.Net from Mexico City.
Organisation: UNAM Science Journalism Unit
Country: Mexico
Lisbeth Fog
Lisbeth Fog is based in Bogotá, Colombia, and is responsible for editing SciDev.Net's Spanish articles, sometimes translating English versions into Spanish. She also acts as a freelance correspondent. Lisbeth has been a science writer since 1984, and holds an MSc in science reporting, from Boston University, United States, where she travelled as a Fulbright scholar. She produces daily one-hour science show for Colombia’s national radio, and writes about science and development issues. She also writes profiles of Colombian scientists for www.universia.net.co and teaches science journalism at Universidad Externado de Colombia.
Organisation: Universidad Externado de Colombia
Country: Colombia
Valeria Román
Valeria Román is a board member for the World Federation of Science Journalists and science journalist for the newspaper Clarín in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Argentina’s Konex Foundation selected her as one of the 100 best journalists in the country in 2007. She was a 2004-2005 Knight science journalism fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, USA, and the 2003 medical journalism program fellow at the WHO, Geneva (Switzerland).
Organisation: Clarín Newspaper
Country: Argentina
Judith Sutz
Judith Sutz is professor of science, technology and society at the University of the Republic, Uruguay, and academic coordinator of the university’s scientific research council. Her interests are in technical change, innovation systems, university research and how all of these affect development.
Organisation: University of the Republic, Uruguay
Country: Uruguay
Arnoldo Ventura
Arnoldo Ventura is the special science and technology advisor to the prime minister of Jamaica. He is well known for his work promoting science and technology in development, especially to reduce poverty. He is the immediate past president of the Inter-America Commission on Science and Technology, part of the Organization of American States, Washington, United States. He has also chaired the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in Geneva, Switzerland. He is an executive committee member of the Global Trust Centre, Malmo Sweden and a member of UNESCO’s small grant committee.
Organisation: National Commission on Science and Technology
Country: Jamaica
Kunda Dixit
Kunda Dixit is a writer, editor and publisher from Nepal. He is co-publisher at Himalmedia and editor of the Nepali Times newspaper. He is also a media educator and is a visiting professor at Kathmandu University. He is the author of several books, including Dateline Earth, Journalism as if the Planet Mattered (Inter Press Service, Manila, 1997), which is aimed at journalism students writing about science, development and economics. Kunda Dixit served as the Asia-Pacific regional director of Inter Press Service and later as the director of the Panos Institute South Asia. He has reported for the BBC World Service from the United Nations in New York and has covered development and environment issues from all over the world. Before getting his journalism degree from Columbia University in New York, he was a microbiologist and specialised in biogas technology as an alternative fuel for the rural communities in developing countries, adapting it especially for methane generation in cold, mountainous areas such as Nepal.
Organisation: Himalmedia
Country: Nepal
Nalaka Gunawardene
Nalaka Gunawardene is director and chief executive officer of TVE Asia Pacific, a regional media foundation that communicates about sustainable development and social justice through television, video and the web. Trained as a science writer and development journalist, Nalaka has 20 years of experience in public communication, initially in the mainstream media and later in the development sector. He has also worked with IUCN (The World Conservation Union), consulted for several UN agencies in Asia, and is a board member of Panos South Asia.
Organisation: TVE Asia Pacific
Country: Sri Lanka
Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy
Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy is professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. He holds a PhD in nuclear physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His awards include the Abdus Salam Prize for mathematics, the Baker Award for electronics, Faiz Ahmad Faiz Prize for contributions to education in Pakistan, and the UNESCO 2003 Kalinga Prize for popularising science. He is a visiting professor at MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Maryland and Stanford Linear Accelerator (all in the United States). Pervez is involved in social issues such as women's rights, environment, education and nuclear disarmament. He is frequently invited to comment on nuclear and political matters in Pakistani and international media. Over the years, he has produced and directed several documentary films on political, nuclear and scientific topics. He is author of Islam and Science: Religious orthodoxy and the battle for rationality (Zed Books, London, 1992). He is chairman of Mashal Books, a non-profit organisation based in Lahore that publishes books on social, philosophical and scientific issues. In 2003, Pervez was invited to the Pugwash Council, and he is a sponsor of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He is also a member of the World Federation of Scientists' Permanent Monitoring Panel on Terrorism.
Organisation: Quaid-e-Azam University
Country: Pakistan
Killugudi S Jayaraman
Killugudi S Jayaraman is India correspondent for Nature, and pioneered investigative science journalism in India at a time when there were no professional science journalists in the country. He started his career as a physicist at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, and later continued it at the University of Maryland, United States. He turned to journalism, after a course at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University (United States). Until 1997, Jayaraman was with the Press Trust of India news agency, first as a science reporter and later as science editor. He is one of the founders of the Indian Science Writers' Association and was the first recipient of an award for science journalism in print media from India's National Council of Science and Technology Communication. Jayaraman lives in Bangalore, India.
Organisation: Nature
Country: India
Anuj Sinha
Anuj Sinha is an advisor and head of the science communication division of India's Department of Science and Technology. He has degrees in engineering, economics and an MBA, and has specialised in science and social policy planning. For the past 25 years, he has been helping young scientists get involved in frontline research and in schemes to enable engineers and scientists to combat poverty through research, development and adaptation. He has guided national programmes on environmental awareness, a national campaign for scientific awareness and a programme to encourage creativity in young people. Sinha is a member of several expert groups on science in India and a number of international science communication journals boards.
Organisation: National Council for Science and Technology Communication
Country: India
Joanna Chataway
Jo Chataway is a professor of biotechnology and development at the Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. She is also part of the senior management team at Innogen — a collaborative research programme examining social and economic aspects of genomics innovation. She leads projects examining North-South knowledge flows in biotechnology and genomics, and biotechnology governance in developing countries.
Organisation: Open University
Country: United Kingdom
Belinda Clarke
Belinda Clarke is an international trade advisor in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals at UK Trade and Investment, part of the UK government — working closely with research scientists and biotechnology companies alike. She has worked for the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications on collaborations with Kenya and has also worked on participatory approaches to agriculture and healthcare technologies in Asia.
Organisation: UK Trade and Investment
Country: United Kingdom
Luis Herrera-Estrella
Luis Herrera-Estrella is a plant molecular biologist. He received his doctorate from Ghent University, Belgium but is now head of the Plant Biotechnology Unit at the Centre for Research and Advanced Studies in Irapuato, Mexico. He is an elected member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Organisation: Centre for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV)
Country: Mexico
Jikun Huang
Jikun Huang is director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing. His research focuses on agricultural and rural development, research and development policy and environmental economics. He is an advisor to the Chinese government and a member of several journal editorial boards.
Organisation: Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy
Country: China
Roger Hull
Roger Hull, an emeritus fellow at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, United Kingdom, is a plant pathologist specialising in plant virology. He is actively involved in applying transgenic technology in developing countries and has been awarded honorary chairs, degrees and fellowships in China, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Organisation: John Innes Centre
Country: United Kingdom
Gurdev Khush
Gurdev Khush is a plant breeder and geneticist who received his doctorate from the University of California, United States. He worked at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Banos, the Philippines, for more than 30 years and helped develop more than 300 new strains of rice. He is now a member of the scientific advisory committee to India's Department of Biotechnology, as well as an advisor to IRRI and other bodies.
Organisation: University of California, Davis
Country: United States
Guido Ruivenkamp
Guido Ruivenkamp is a sociologist working in the technology and agrarian development group at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He is editor of the journal Tailoring Biotechnologies and has written about the politics of scientific research and technology choices, public and stakeholder engagement and the shaping of biotechnology, in both European and developing country contexts.
Organisation: Wageningen University
Country: The Netherlands
M S Swaminathan
M S Swaminathan chairs the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai, India. A plant geneticist by training, he is recognised as a leading contributor to the green revolution in India. He has served on several international advisory panels and committees, including the Indian National Commission on Agriculture and Food Security. He has also been decorated with many awards and distinctions, including 46 honorary doctorates.
Organisation: M S Swaminathan Research Foundation
Country: India
Marc van Montagu
Marc van Montagu is emeritus professor at Ghent University and chairman of the university's Institute of Plant Biotechnology for Developing Countries. He co-invented the Agrobacterium tumefaciens plant genetic transformation mechanism. He has received many prestigious awards, holds honorary degrees and chairs at several European and international universities, and has been elected to science academies in Belgium, France, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the United States.
Organisation: Ghent University
Country: Belgium
Cristián Samper (chair)
CristiánSamper is director of the US National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institute) in Washington DC. He is the founder of the Humboldt Institute for Biological Research in Bogota, Colombia.
Organisation: US National Museum of Natural History
Country: Colombia/United States
Gretchen Daily
Gretchen Daily is director of the Tropical Research Program at the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. She is the co-author of The New Economy of Nature: The quest to make conservation profitable (Island Press, 2002).
Organisation: Stanford University
Country: United States
David Duthie
David Duthie is a project management officer with the UN Environment Programme, based in Nairobi. He works with the Global Environment Facility, Coordination Division and provides technical assistance to national governments, helping them meet their obligations under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
Organisation: UNEP/GEF
Country: United Kingdom/Kenya
Tewolde Berhan Egziabher
Tewolde Berhan Egziabher is general manager of the Environmental Protection Authority of Ethiopia. He also represented Africa during negotiations for the Cartagena protocol on biosafety.
Organisation: Environmental Protection Authority, Ethiopia
Country: Ethiopia
Henk Hobbelink
Henk Hobbelink is coordinator of Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN), an NGO that campaigns to keep genetic resources in the public domain. He is based in Barcelona.
Organisation: Genetic Resources Action International
Country: Spain
Shahid Naeem
Shahid Naeem is a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology at Columbia University, New York. He is a member of the UN Millenium Project and the Millenium Ecosystems Assessment. He is the director of a network coordinating research on biodiversity called BioMERGE.
Organisation: Columbia University
Country: United States
Hamdallah Zedan
Hamdallah Zedan is a former executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Organisation: Convention on Biological Diversity
Country: Egypt/Canada
Theib Oweis (co-chair)
Organisation: International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas
Country: Syria
Malavika Chauhan
Organisation: Jawaharlal Nehru University
Country: India
Mark Rosegrant
Organisation: International Food Policy Research Institute
Country: United States
Richard Thomas
Organisation: International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas
Country: Syria
Andrew Warren
Organisation: University College London
Country: United Kingdom
Saleemul Huq (chair)
Saleemul Huq is director of the climate change programme at the International Institute for Environment and Development, London, United Kingdom. He is founder and chairman of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, one of the country's main nongovernmental research and policy institutes working on environment and development issues. He has been actively involved in developing participatory environmental planning and management methodologies for the last two decades, and he advised on UNDP's Capacity 21 Programme, having particular responsibility for Mongolia, Bhutan, Gambia and Kazakhstan. He was a lead author of the chapter on adaptation and sustainable development in the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Organisation: International Institute for Environment and Development
Country: United Kingdom / Bangladesh
Roberto Lenton
Roberto Lenton is senior advisor for international development at the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction, part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, United States. He also chairs the technical committee of the Global Water Partnership and co-chairs the Millennium Project Task Force on Water and Sanitation. His former roles include director of the sustainable energy and environment division of UNDP, director-general of the International Water Management Institute in Sri Lanka, and officer for the rural poverty and resources programme of the Ford Foundation in New York and New Delhi. While at UNDP, he served as co-sponsor representative for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and helped to establish the Global Water Partnership.
Organisation: Columbia University
Country: United States / Argentina
Bo Lim
Bo Lim is senior technical advisor in the UNDP-GEF Unit for Capacity Development and Adaptation, responsible for crosscutting environmental issues and capacity development. She originally joined the UNDP to oversee the climate change support programme for non-Annex I Parties National Communications. Since 1995, she has run the Greenhouse Gas Inventory Programme for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Organisation: United Nations Development Programme
Country: United Kingdom
Anthony J McMichael
Anthony McMichael is director of the Australian National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University in Canberra. His research interests lie in environmental health and epidemiological studies, risk assessment, ecological sustainability, climate change, and health. He has previously taught at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, where he helped to establish the Centre on Globalisation, Environmental Change and Health. Since 1993 he has been coordinating assessments of health impacts for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Organisation: Australian National University
Country: Australia
Benito Müller
Benito Müller is a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies, United Kingdom. He is also senior research associate of Queen Elizabeth House, the University of Oxford's Centre for Development Studies, and an associate fellow at the University’s Environmental Change Institute. He is an associate fellow of the Stockholm Environment Institute and the UK's Royal Institute for International Affairs. His research interests include equity in allocating emission targets and in sharing the burden of their effects.
Organisation: University of Oxford / Oxford Institute for Energy Studies
Country: United Kingdom
Mohan Munasinghe
Mohan Munasinghe is founding chairman of the Munasinghe Institute for Development in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is vice chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and chief energy advisor to the government of Sri Lanka. Previously, he served as a director at the World Bank, and senior energy advisor to the President of Sri Lanka. He has won a number of international awards for his research, and is a prolific author of books and technical papers.
Organisation: Munasinghe Institute for Development
Country: Sri Lanka
Agus P Sari
Agus Sari is executive director of Pelangi, an environmental think tank based in Jakarta, Indonesia. He also holds a research position at the Energy and Resources Group of the University of California, Berkeley, and is a member of the scientific steering committee of the institutional dimension project at the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change. He has previously advised Malaysia's delegation to the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Organisation: Pelangi Indonesia
Country: Indonesia
Youba Sokona
Youba Sokona is the executive secretary of the Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel (OSS) in Tunis, Tunisia. He is also a member of the technical advisory group of the joint UNDP/World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistant Programme. Before joining the OSS, he was the director of ENDA's energy programme, and a professor at the National Engineering School in Bamako, Mali. He has also held a research post at the Paris School of Mines, France.
Organisation:Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel
Country: Tunisia
Ethics of clinical research
Brian Greenwood (chair)
Organisation: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Country: United Kingdom
Fred Binka
Fred Binka is associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Ghana.
Organisation: University of Ghana
Country: Ghana
Yali Cong
Organisation: Peking University Health Science Centre
Country: China
Adnan Hyder
Organisation: Johns Hopkins University
Country: United States
Nandini Kumar
Organisation: Indian Council of Medical Research
Country: India
Claudio Lanata
Organisation: Instituto de Investigacion Nutricional
Country: Peru
Dominique Lecourt
Organisation:Institut de recherche pour le developpement
Country: France
Florencia Luna
Organisation: Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales
Country: Argentina
Patricia Marshall
Organisation: Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Country: United States
Halima Mwenesi
Organisation: NetMark Africa Regional Malaria Programme
Country: South Africa
Alwyn Mwinga
Organisation: University Teaching Hospital Zambia
Country: Zambia
Ross Upshur
Organisation: Joint Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto
Country: Canada
Malaria
Bridget Ogilvie (co-chair)
Bridget Ogilvie chairs the board of directors of Medicines for Malaria Venture.
Organisation: Medicines for Malaria Venture
Country: Switzerland
Fred Binka (co-chair)
Fred Binka is associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Ghana.
Organisation: University of Ghana
Country: Ghana
Brian Greenwood
Brian Greenwood is director of the Gates Malaria Partnership, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom.
Organisation: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Country: United Kingdom
Wilfred Mbacham
Wilfred Mbacham is an associate professor of public health and biotechnology at the Biotechnology Centre, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Organisation: University of Yaoundé
Country: Cameroon
Carlos Morel
Carlos Morel is scientific director of the FIOCRUZ Foundation
Organisation: FIOCRUZ Foundation
Country: Brazil
Geoffrey Targett
Geoffrey Targett is deputy director of the Gates Malaria Partnership, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom.
Organisation: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Country: United Kingdom
Nick White
Nick White chairs the Wellcome Trust’s South East Asian Research Units, and is a professor of tropical medicine at the University of Oxford (United Kingdom) and Mahidol University, Bangkok.
Organisation: Wellcome Trust
Country: United Kingdom
Bob Snow
Bob Snow is a Wellcome Trust senior research fellow at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)–Wellcome Trust collaborative research programme in Nairobi, Kenya.
Organisation: Wellcome Trust
Kevin Marsh
Kevin Marsh is director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)–Wellcome Trust collaborative research programme at Kilifi, Kenya.
Organisation: Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)
Country: Kenya
Brain drain
Jean-Baptiste Meyer (chair)
Jean-Baptiste Meyer is a socio-economist at the Institute of Research for Development in France. He has been working in Asia, Latin America and Africa on the international mobility of skills since 1990.
Organisation: Institute of Research for Development
Country: France
Anne-Marie Gaillard
Anne-Marie Gaillard is a social anthropologist specialising in international migration studies.
Organisation: Consultant
Country: France/Sweden
Binod Khadria
Binod Khadria is professor of economics at the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
Organisation: Jawaharlal Nehru University
Country: India
Sally Peberdy
Sally Peberdy is project manager at the Southern African Migration Project in Johannesburg. Her particular interest is in the relationship between trade and migration.
Organisation: Southern African Migration Project
Country: South Africa
María Adela Pellegrino
María Adela Pellegrino is coordinator of the Population Program at the Social Sciences College of the Universidad de la Republica in Uruguay.
Organisation: Universidad de la Republica
Country: Uruguay
Léa Velho
Léa Velho is a researcher at the Institute for New Technologies, University of the United Nations and University of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. She has worked extensively on building research capacity in developing countries.
Organisation: University of the United Nations
Country: Italy/Brazil
Indigenous knowledge
Graham Dutfield (chair)
Graham Dutfield is a senior research fellow at the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute in the United Kingdom. His former roles include academic director of the UNCTAD-ICTSD capacity-building project on intellectual property rights and development, senior research associate at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development in Geneva, Switzerland, and research coordinator of the programme for traditional resource rights, University of Oxford, London.
Organisation: Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute
Country: United Kingdom
Alejandro Argumedo
Alejandro Argumedo is director of the Quechua-Aymara Association for Sustainable Livelihoods,in Peru, where he works to develop alternative ways to protect indigenous knowledge and associated genetic resources. A Quechua agronomist from Peru, he works with indigenous initiatives, striving for the recognition of indigenous peoples' rights in United Nations and international environment, development and human rights forums.
Organisation: Quechua-Aymara Association for Sustainable Livelihoods (ANDES)
Country: Peru
Anil K Gupta
Anil Gupta holds the Kasturbhai Lalbhai Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Indian Institute of Management. His interests include supporting grassroots innovators, blending ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ science, and creating knowledge networks. He is coordinator of the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions , and executive vice chair of India’s National Innovation Foundation.
Organisation: Indian Institute of Management
Country: India
Manuel Ruiz
Manuel Ruiz is director of the programme on international affairs and biodiversity at the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law, a non-profit organisation that increases the capacity of societies for environmentally sustainable development. Working at the national, regional and international level, the society helps develop and apply legislation and policies that integrate economic aspirations with social and environmental needs.
Organisation: Peruvian Society for Environmental Law (SPDA)
Country: Peru
Paul Sillitoe
Paul Sillitoe is a social and cultural anthropologist specialising in economics, politics and social change, subsistence, livelihood and technology, human ecology and ethno-science. His research interests focus on tropical farming systems and indigenous natural resource management strategies, particularly in the Pacific region. He chairs the board of studies for the anthropology department at the University of Durham.
Organisation: University of Durham
Country: United Kingdom
Intellectual property
Graham Dutfield(chair)
Carlos M Correa
Carlos M Correa is director of the master's programme on science and technology policy and management at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Organisation: University of Buenos Aires
Country: Argentina
Patricia Kameri-Mbote
Patricia Kameri-Mbote is the programme director for Africa at the International Environmental Law Research Centre, Kenya.
Organisation:International Environmental Law Research Centre
Country: Kenya
R A Mashelkar
R A Mashelkar is director-general of India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
Organisation: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
Country: India
Brendan Tobin
Organisation: United Nations University
Country: Japan
David Vivas
David Vivas is programme manager for intellectual property, technology and services at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, Switzerland.
Organisation: International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)
Country: Switzerland
Research and development policy and technology transfer
Carlos Abeledo (co-chair)
Carlos Abeledo is professor of science policy at the University of Buenos Aires and advisor to the secretary of university policies at the Argentinean Ministry of Education. He is a former president of the Argentinean Science and Technology Research Council (CONICET).
Organisation: University of Buenos Aires
Country: Argentina
Lynn K Mytelka (co-chair)
Lynn Mytelka holds the title of distinguished research professor at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) and is a senior research fellow at the United Nations University Institute for New Technologies (UNU-INTECH) in Maastricht, The Netherlands. Between 2000-2004 she was director of UNU-INTECH and between 1996-1999, director of the division on investment, technology and enterprise development at UNCTAD in Geneva, Switzerland. Her research interest include innovation processes, policies and systems. She has studied how innovation systems are built in a variety of developed and developing countries.
Organisation: UNU/INTECH
Geoffrey Oldham (convenor)
Geoffrey Oldham is a former director of the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, in the United Kingdom. He was also chairman of the United Nations Advisory Committee on Science and Technology for Development and was, for five years, the UK delegate to the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development. He chaired the commissions' working groups on gender and science for development and information technology and development. Geoff chaired SciDev.Net’s board of trustees from the organisation’s foundation in 2001 until the end of 2007.
Country: United Kingdom
Andrew Barnett
Andrew Barnett is an economist with more than 30 years of experience in the developing world. He has worked mainly on technology policy, energy policy and poverty reduction, both as a researcher and consultant. He is a consultant for several development agencies, including the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID). He was a major contributor to DFID’s Research Policy Paper, and was the specialist advisor to the UK’s House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology in their recent inquiry into the use of science in UK international development policy. Andrew is a moderator for the technical advisory group of the World Bank’s trust funded energy programmes and is a member of the editorial board of the journal 'World Development'.
Organisation: The Policy Practice Limited
Country: United Kingdom
Martin Bell
Martin Bell is a senior fellow at Science and Technology Policy Research (SPRU), University of Sussex, United Kingdom. He is a former director of graduate studies and director of studies for research at SPRU. He is interested in developing technological capabilities in industrialising countries, especially in Asia; how sectoral and national innovation systems emerge; how firms manage technology, and the role of imported technology.
Organisation: Science and Technology Policy Research (SPRU)
Country: United Kingdom
Joanna Chataway
Jo Chataway is a professor of biotechnology and development at the Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. She is also part of the senior management team at Innogen — a collaborative research programme examining social and economic aspects of genomics innovation. She leads projects examining North-South knowledge flows in biotechnology and genomics, and biotechnology governance in developing countries.
Organisation: Open University
Country: United Kingdom
Dilip Ahuja
Dilip Ahuja is a professor of science and technology policy studies and a member of the academic council of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India. Between 1994 and 1999 he was a senior climate change specialist at the UN Global Environment Facility in Washington DC, United States, and has also held posts at the US Environmental Protection Agency, University of Pennsylvania and the Tata Energy Research Institute (now The Energy Research Institute), New Delhi, India. His research interests include policy options for addressing global climate change. He is a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s methodological and technological issues in technology transferreport (IPCC 1998).
Organisation: National Institute of Advanced Studies
Fabio Stefano Erber
Fabio Stefano Erber is a professor at the Institute of Economics, part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Brazil. He is former director of the Brazilian National Bank for Economic and Social Development. His interests are scientific and technological development policy, industrial policy and industrial and technological development.
Organisation: Institute of Economics of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Country: Brazil
Jorge Katz
Jorge Katz is a former divisional director of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Santiago de Chile. He is also a professor of technology and innovation at the University of Chile. His interests are technological change, innovation systems, and technology and industrial restructuring in Latin America.
Organisation: University of Chile
Country: Chile
John Kirkland
John Kirkland has been deputy secretary general (development) at the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) since December 2003. He directs the global research management programme of the ACU and works on developing a programme to help African libraries get greater access to journals. He is also executive secretary to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom. John obtained his doctorate from Brunel University in 1989 and worked as head of the university’s Research Services Bureau for six years.
Organisation: Association of Commonwealth Universities
Country: United Kingdom
Melissa Leach
Melissa Leach is a professorial fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, United Kingdom. Her research interests include social and institutional dimensions of environmental change; gender; knowledge, power and policy processes; health technologies, citizenship and participation, and social and historical perspectives on ecology, agriculture and forestry, particularly in Africa and the Caribbean.
Organisation: Institute of Development Studies
Country: United Kingdom
Josette Lewis
Josette Lewis has been with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for over ten years, beginning as a science, technology and diplomacy fellow, supported by the America Association for the Advancement of Science. She worked on grant programmes supporting sustainable agriculture and Israeli-Arab collaborative research before taking the lead on USAID's agricultural biotechnology programmes in 1997. She oversees USAID biotechnology activities globally, but particularly focusing on Africa. Her role supports research and technology development, public and private sector partnerships, technology transfer, intellectual property rights, biosafety regulatory development, and public outreach.
Organisation: USAID
Sunil Mani
Sunil Mani is a professor at the Centre for Development Studies in Trivandrum, Kerala, India. He is also a former research fellow and head of graduate studies at UNU-INTECH. He is interested in public innovation policies in developing countries, innovation capability in the telecommunications equipment industry, and indicators of innovation in developing countries.
Organisation: Centre for Development Studies in Kerala
Country: India
John Mugabe
John Mugabe is an advisor on science and technology to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), based in Pretoria. He is a former executive director of the African Centre for Technology Studies, a science policy research think-tank based in Nairobi. He has helped to establish the African Forum on Science and Technology for Development, an organization that provides members of NEPAD and the African Union with science and technology policy advice. His recent publications include Biotechnology in Sub-Saharan Africa: Towards a policy research agenda (African Technology Policy Studies Network 2004).
Organisation: NEPAD Science and Technology Secretariat
Syeda Tanveer Naim
Syeda Tanveer Naim is a consultant on science and technology policy to the Pakistan government, an advisor to the Organization of the Islamic Conferences Standing Commission on Science and Technology (Comstech), based in Islamabad, and a member of the gender advisory board of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development. She is a former chair of the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology, the national agency responsible for compiling science and technology statistics. Her most recent project was to implement a new performance-related pay scheme for Pakistan’s scientists. She is a co-author of Old Roads, New Highways: 50 years of Pakistan (Oxford University Press 1997).
Organisation: Pakistan Council for Science and Technology
Adnan Shihab-Eldin
Currently serving as Acting for the Secretary General for OPEC, Dr Shihab-Eldin joined the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as Director of the Research Division in August 2001. From March 1999 to August 2001 he served as Director of the Division for Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Department of Technical Co- operation, at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria. Prior to joining the IAEA, from December 1991 to February 1999, he served as director of the UNESCO Regional Office for Science and Technology and as the UNESCO Representative in Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen.
Organisation: OPEC
Judith Sutz
Morris Teubal
Morris Teubal is professor of economics at the Hebrew University, Israel. His research interests are: research, technology and innovation policies; economic growth processes; technological change; technology infrastructure policy and evolving national innovation systems, particularly Israel's and of other industrialising and/or peripheral economies. He researches how venture capital emerges and is consolidated, both in industrialised and developing countries; venture capital and high-tech policies; how policy portfolios evolve; the innovation and technology policy cycle; and how systems-evolutionary perspectives become ‘codified’ in innovation and technology policy.
In the early 1990s, while heading an academic group dealing with Israel's innovation policies, Teubal was directly involved in the creating the Magnet Programme, promoting an Israeli consortia of companies and universities devoted to pre-competitive, collaborative, generic R&D. He is currently the most senior member of the Magnet Committee.
Organisation: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Country: Israel
Léa Velho
Léa Velho is a professor and former head of graduate studies at the United Nations University, Institute for New Technologies (UNU-INTECH). Also associate professor at the University of Campinas, Brazil. She explores the conditions that encourage developing countries to build capacity in research and innovation to further their development objectives.
Organisation: UNU-INTECH
Country: The Netherlands
Mario Waissbluth
Mario Waissbluth is founder and president of INVERTEC-IGT, a Chilean firm offering management consulting in research and development policy and management. He is also professor of science and technology and director of the Centre of Innovation and Technology of the University Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile. He holds a PhD in chemical engineering from Wisconsin University, United States.
Organisation: INVERTEC-IGT
Country: Chile
Lan Xue
Lan Xue is a professor and executive associate dean at the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is also executive vice president of the Development Research Academy for the 21st Century at the university. He is an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, United States and a fellow of the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas, United States. His teaching and research interests include analysing and managing public policy and science and technology policy, and crisis management. Xue has advised on policy for various Chinese government agencies, and has consulted for international organisations including the World Bank. He is a member of the International Council of Science Unions’ policy committee on developing countries.
Organisation: Tsinghua University
Country: China