June 22, 2018: New Scientific Secretary

NAMMCO is pleased to welcome our new Scientific Secretary.

Dr Fern Wickson is an Australian citizen who has been living in Norway for over a decade.

She is a Research Professor of Environmental Governance and holds an interdisciplinary PhD across biology and political science. Her work has focused on the science/policy interface and specifically, the integration of science, indigenous knowledge, stakeholder views and environmental philosophy in the pursuit of sustainable food systems.

Before accepting the role with NAMMCO, she was employed as a Senior Scientist and Research Leader at GenØk Centre for Biosafety in Tromsø, Norway. Here she coordinated the transdisciplinary collaborative for Responsible and Sustainable Biotechnoscience (RootS) and was project leader for several international research projects on the environmental governance of controversial new technologies (e.g. biotechnology and nanotechnology). Committed to ecological ethics and a politics of socio-ecological care, the primary objective of her work has been to advance sustainability in food systems and responsibility in research and innovation arenas.

Fern has served as an expert delegate to the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) working group on the diverse conceptualization of values in nature. She is also a member of the Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board and past President of the international Society for the Study of New and Emerging Technologies (S.Net).

In her spare time, Fern enjoys hiking, snowboarding, kayaking and trying to grow her own food. She is also a yoga and meditation teacher and runs her own studio in Tromsø.

Fern will commence her work at NAMMCO on 22 October.