GM Science Review Panel - Members' Interests

Dr Andrew Cockburn

Dr Andrew Cockburn - C Biol FI Biol., Registered Toxicologist. Director of Scientific Affairs (Europe/Africa) for Monsanto: his background is in the field of risk and safety assessment across a wide range of substances and products.

He obtained B.Sc. (Hons) First Class at Brunel University, specialising in biochemistry, where he also gained his Ph.D for in vitro studies on the detection of cardiotoxicity. He worked in the Food industry at Rank Hovis McDougall for two years on the safety of Quorn and other novel foods before joining the Pharmaceutical industry, Beecham (now GSK) in 1970 where he became International Head of Toxicology. In 1987 he moved to the agrochemical industry as Head of Safety Evaluation for Schering, and subsequently AgrEvo. He has been involved in dealing with regulatory authorities worldwide, particularly with regard to safety issues surrounding the registration of new medicines, agrochemicals, novel proteins, foods and GM crops. He is a member of numerous scientific societies and has served on a large number of committees; he has over 60 scientific publications. He is a former Trustee of the ILSI Health and Environmental Science Institute and currently sits on ILSI's EU Scientific Committee for Food and Novel Food Committee. He is Visiting Professor to the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science at the University of Newcastle and was recently made a Fellow of the Commonwealth Agriculture Bureau.