SciDev.Net
Science and Development Network
News, views and information about science, technology and the developing world
People
SciDev.Net involves a wide range of individuals, working together towards common goals. As well as its users, SciDev.Net has:
Trustees
The Board of Trustees sets the overall direction of SciDev.Net and monitors its operation, both through an annual meeting of the full board, and quarterly meetings of its executive committee.
Each trustee is selected for their knowledge and experience of the issues that we cover. Two thirds come from, or are based in, developing countries.
Current membership of the board of trustees is as follows:
Andrew Bennett, chair
Andrew Bennett chairs SciDev.Net’s board of trustees and is a former executive director of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture. He is president of the UK Tropical Agricultural Association, a member of the Council of the Overseas Development Institute (United Kingdom) and chair of trustees of the Centre for International Forestry Research, Indonesia. Andrew was director of rural livelihoods and environment for the UK’s Department for International Development, providing advice to government ministers. He was awarded the UK Companion: Order of St Michael and St George for his services to foreign nations and has over 40 years experience in international development in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Pacific and Caribbean.
Country: United Kingdom
Lidia Brito
Lidia Brito has extensive experience working with local, national, and international organisations. She provides technical expertise and political support in: good governance issues, energy, higher education, science and technology, ICT and their affects on social development. She holds an MSc and PhD in forest sciences and a degree in forest engineering. As the first minister of higher education, science and technology of Mozambique (2000 – 2005) and deputy vice-chancellor of Eduardo Mondlane University (1998-2000), she accumulated extensive experience in higher education, science and technology, information and computer technology (ICT) and innovation policies and programmes. In the past year and half Lidia has advised the mayor of Maputo on strategic planning and external relations. She has served as a member of many international boards and has participated in several congresses and world summits.
Organisation: Eduardo Mondlane University
Country: Mozambique
Angela Cropper
Angela Cropper is the co-founder and president of The Cropper Foundation, a philanthropic not-for-profit organisation committed to Caribbean and global development, including policy, practice and education for sustainable development. She co-chaired the assessment panel of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, chaired the board of trustees of the Centre for International Forestry Research and was a board member of the Environment Management Authority in Trinidad and Tobago. She was a member of the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development and has worked with a range of international organisations including IUCN -The World Conservation Union, UNEP and UNDP. She currently serves on the board of trustees of International Institute for Sustainable, the Stockholm Environment Institute, the International Development Research Centre, and as an independent senator in the parliament of Trinidad and Tobago.
Organisation: The Cropper Foundation
Country: Trinidad and Tobago
Abdallah Daar
Abdallah Daar is senior scientist and co-director of the programme on life sciences, ethics and policy at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University Health Network, Toronto. He is professor of public health sciences and professor of surgery at the University of Toronto, and is also director of ethics and policy at the McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine. He has helped to start two medical schools in the Middle East and held the position of chair of surgery in Oman. He has been an expert advisor to a number of international organisations, including the World Health Organization and the office of the UN secretary general. Daar recently chaired the external review committee of the WHO/World Bank/UNDP/UNICEF sppecial Programme on Tropical Diseases Research and Training and is a member of the African Union High-level Panel on Modern Biotechnology. He is a fellow of the Royal Society (Canada), the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and of the New York Academy of Sciences. His awards include the Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Sciences and the Anthony Miller Award for Research Excellence. In 2005 he was awarded the UNESCO's Avicenna Prize for Ethics and Science.
Organisation: McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, UHN/MCMM at University of Toronto
Country: Canada
Ji Fusheng
Ji Fusheng is a former director general of the Department of Fundamental Research and High Technology of the People's Republic of China, and science counsellor of China's permanent mission to the United Nations. He is currently an independent consultant in information technology to several governmental and non-governmental organisations, playing an active role in public policy issues related to science and technology. Fusheng also edits two journals in computer science.
Country: China
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
Mohamed H A Hassan
Mohamed H.A. Hassan is president of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and executive director of TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world. He is also head of the secretariats of the InterAcademy Panel (IAP) and the InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP) and serves on committees with other organisations worldwide. He holds a PhD in plasma physics from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, and is a former professor and dean of the School of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Khartoum, Sudan. He received the order of scientific merit of Brazil and the order of merit of Italy. He is a fellow of TWAS, AAS, the World Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Islamic World Academy of Sciences, as well as foreign member of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, honorary member of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences and corresponding member of the Royal Overseas Academy of Sciences of Belgium.
Organisation: TWAS
Country: Italy
Donald Kennedy
Donald Kennedy has been the editor-in-chief of the journal Science, the weekly international journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, since 2000. He is a president emeritus of Stanford University, where he formerly held the position of president (for 12 years), and is a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He is Bing Professor of environmental science at Stanford University, Emeritus and co-chairs an interdisciplinary centre devoted to developing environmental policies.
Organisation: Science
Country: United States of America
Geoffrey Oldham
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
Luc Soete
Luc Soete is director of the United Nations University - Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT) and a professor of international economics at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Luc has worked at the Department of Economics of the University of Antwerp in the Netherlands, the Institute of Development Studies and the Science Policy Research Unit, both at the University of Sussex (United Kingdom), and the Department of Economics at Stanford University (United States). He is a member of the Dutch Advisory Council for Science and Technology Policy.
Organisation: UNU-MERIT
Country: The Netherlands
Hebe Vessuri
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
Consultants
SciDev.Net employs a number of part-time consultants to provide dedicated editorial, marketing and other services for the regions and topics we cover.
Our regional coordinators drive our networks in China, Latin America and the Caribbean and South Asia. They are pivotal in managing the future direction of the networks. They build partnerships with key organisations, coordinate editorial input on the website, promote SciDev.Net and manage their teams of consultants and freelancers.
China
Jia Hepeng, regional coordinator jia.hepeng@scidev.net
Hepeng is an award-winning science journalist who has worked for both China Daily and China Business Weekly. He has regularly contributed to SciDev.Net since 2002. He also writes for Nature Biotechnology. He became SciDev.Net's regional coordinator for China in June 2005, responsible for promoting SciDev.Net in China and maintaining its Chinese language website.
Liu Zhenhua, regional consultant
Luisa Massarani, regional coordinator americalatina@scidev.net
Luisa Massarani is based in Brazil, and is responsible for coordinating SciDev.Net’s freelance correspondents and other key individuals and organisations in Latin America and the Caribbean. She also coordinates meetings, workshops and other training events on science communication and science journalism. Luisa is a science journalist, has a PhD in science communication, and has published several scientific papers and books in this field. She coordinates the nucleus of studies on science communication at Museum of Life/Fiocruz in Rio de Janeiro, which hosts SciDev.Net Latin America.
Paula Leighton, regional consultant paula.leighton@scidev.net
Paula Leighton is a science journalist based in Chile, and has a master's degree in electronic media. She has been writing articles for SciDev.Net since 2004, and also assists Luisa Massarani and works on SciDev.Net promotional activities. She Paula was formerly a journalist for Enlaces, a science programme broadcast by public television in Chile, and was the editor of the science and health section of the nation newspaper La Tercera. She now writes about science and health for El Mercurio, another national newspaper in Chile.
Lisbeth Fog, regional consultant
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
Daniela Hirshfield, regional consultant daniela.hirschfeld@scidev.net
Daniela is a science journalist based in Uruguay who assists Luisa Massarani. She writes about science, technology and health for Búsqueda, a weekly newspaper in Uruguay, and is editor of a magazine. Daniela also is assistant professor at the Universidad Católica del Uruguay where she teaches science journalism.
T V Padma, regional coordinator padma@scidev.net
T V Padma reports on science from India, coordinates freelance contributions from the region and liaises with key organisations that partner with SciDev.Net activities. She has a post-graduate degree in science from the University of Delhi, India. She has worked as a science correspondent with the Press Trust of India, and ran development communication projects for Panos South Asia. She also writes for Nature Medicine and New Scientist.
Killugudi S Jayaraman, regional consultant, South Asia
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
Christina Scott, African news editor christina.scott@scidev.net
Christina is a journalist and author in South Africa, where she coordinates SciDev.Net's contributors from 40 sub-Saharan Africa countries. Previously editor of the South African Broadcasting Corporation's science desk, she launched award-winning weekly television and radio science programmes and continues to do live radio. Christina mentors African reporters through the World Federation of Science Journalists. Her latest book, published by Heinemann, is aimed at promoting health in children and teens across Africa.
Our topic consultants have a broad knowledge of their fields and are able to guide and assess the relevance and timeliness of content in their topic gateways.
- New technologies
Ehsan Masood
Ehsan Masood is a writer and journalist specialising in science, international development and the politics of the Muslim world. He was director of communications for LEAD International, an organisation dedicated to sustainable development through change and leadership, and before that he was opinion editor of New Scientist. He has authored books on desertification, Muslim science and the genetic modification debate.
Rob Wilby
to come
Priya Shetty is SciDev.Net's health consultant, and a freelance science writer and editor. Some of her particular interests are neglected diseases, health systems, and linkages between environment and health. She was a commissioning editor for SciDev.Net, and before that, an assistant editor at the Lancet. Priya has an MSc in science communication from Imperial College, London, and a degree in human genetics from University College London.
Science and innovation policy
Athar Osama
Athar Osama holds a PhD in public policy with a specialization in science, technology, and innovation policy. He works for a London-based technology commercialisation consulting, management, and venture capital company. In the past, Osama has worked on a variety of issues dealing with science and innovation policy including: management of innovation; research and development management and measurement systems; financing of new technologies; entrepreneurship and venture capital; and technology-based economic development. He has also specially focussed on systems of innovation, venture capital industries, information and communication technologies, and higher education systems in developing countries. He is the founder of the Pakistan Research Support Network andMuslim-Science.com. He writes widely on issues at the intersection of science, innovation, and development for a range of print and online publications. Osama has a BSc in aeronautical engineering from the Pakistan Airforce Academy, where he also won the coveted Sword of Honour.
Science communication
Marina Joubert
Marina Joubert pioneered a science communication unit at South Africa’s National Research Foundation. She expanded its activities extensively before starting out as an independent science communication consultant in 2005. She teaches science communication and media skills to scientists and research students, and lectures occasionally in science journalism at two local universities. Marina has an MSc in food science from the University of Pretoria, as well as a postgraduate (Honours) degree in journalism from Stellenbosch University. She is passionate about sharing science with society, especially with young people in developing countries.
Contributors
Most of the material on the website is written by freelance contributors, the majority of whom are based in developing countries We are committed to increasing the percentage of content provided by freelancers from developing countries. In the first half of 2007, southern-based contributors produced, on average, 85% of our news and 94% of our commissioned features.
We are always keen to hear from those who would like to contribute material to the website. For further information, visit 'Writing for SciDev.Net'.
Staff
David Dickson, director and editor of the website editor@scidev.net
David is director of SciDev.Net. He was news editor of Nature from 1993 to August 2001, and was the journal’s Washington correspondent from 1977 to 1982. Originally a graduate in mathematics, he has also worked for The Times Higher Education Supplement (1973-1977), Science (1982-1989) and New Scientist (1989-1992).
Naomi Antony, editorial assistant news@scidev.net
Naomi helps run the news desk at SciDev.Net, searching for news stories and subediting articles. She has a BSc (Hons) in geology and an MSc in science communication, both from Imperial College London. Naomi joined the team in November 2007, shortly after completing her MSc.
Jan Evetts, website support technician support@scidev.net
Jan provides in-house technical support for the website. He previously worked as a consultant analyst on social housing projects for the United Kingdom’s Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Jan holds a degree in chemistry from Imperial College, London.
Andrew Lee, web production manager production@scidev.net
Andy manages the editorial production of all material posted on the website, and is overseeing implementation of the new website. Before joining SciDev.Net in May 2007, Andy was a production editor at the Royal Society (United Kingdom). He has a PhD from the University of Leeds in analytical chemistry applied to complex environmental and atmospheric mixtures.
Karen Levin, operations manager accounts@scidev.net
Since SciDev.Net’s foundation in 2001, Karen has managed day-to-day operations, including the set up and running of the London office. She manages the organisation’s finances, human resources, legal affairs and IT infrastructure. She also attends and minutes at the AGM and Executive committee meetings. Karen has a BA in East Asian studies from the University of Jerusalem and worked as operations manager for several small start-up companies in the publishing and Internet fields.
Sian Lewis, commissioning editor dossiers@scidev.net
Sian manages SciDev.Net's dossiers, commissioning and editing contributions from scientists, policymakers and other stakeholders. Before joining SciDev.Net in June 2006, Sian was correspondence editor and editorial project manager at Nature. She has an MSc and PhD in remote sensing from University College London, United Kingdom.
Mun-Keat Looi, news editor news@scidev.net
Mun-Keat manages the flow of news stories to the website and works with SciDev.Net's network of freelance writers, commissioning and editing news and features for the website. He has a degree in genetics and an MSc in science communication, and previously worked for the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.
Katherine Nightingale, assistant news editor news@scidev.net
Katherine supports the news editor in managing the flow of news stories to the website. She has an MPhil in molecular and cellular biology and an MSc in science communication. Before joining SciDev.Net in February 2007, Katherine worked for the UK-based medical charity Leukaemia Research.
Elinor Smallman, administrative assistant accounts@scidev.net
Elinor provides administrative and marketing support to the SciDev.Net office. She recently graduated from Loughborough University with a BA (Hons) in Publishing with English. Before joining the SciDev.Net team she worked as a survey assistant for Nottingham University's SHERPA project which investigates issues in the future of scholarly communication, such as open access publishing.