Members of the Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR)

The PPR Panel brings together highly qualified risk assessment experts from a number of European nationalities with expertise in a range of relevant fields.

Panel members are appointed by the EFSA Management Board for three years renewable. Appointments are made on the basis of proven scientific excellence following an open call for applications and a rigorous selection procedure. The Panel regularly sets up Working Groups involving external scientists with relevant expertise to deal with specific matters and to help produce scientific opinions. All experts working for EFSA sign a Declaration of Interests to safeguard EFSA’s commitment to independence.


View the Declarations of Interests and biographies of PPR Panel members for 2009 - 2012.

PPR Panel Members and their areas of expertise 

Anthony Hardy, Chair

  • Ecotoxicology
  • Ecology
  • Environmental risk assessment of pesticides
  • Environmental impact of agricultural systems
  • Birds, mammals, insects
  • Pesticides and food safety

Robert Luttik, Vice-Chair

  • Ecotoxicology
  • Ecology
  • Environmental risk assessment
  • Food chain modelling
  • Residues on food items for wild animals
  • Uncertainty in risk assessment
  • Birds, mammals, aquatic ecosystem and higher plants
  • Pesticides, biocides

Susanne Hougaard Bennekou, Vice-Chair

  • Toxicology
  • Risk assessment of pesticides and biocides
  • Preclinical assessment of medicines
  • Endocrine disruption by chemicals (incl. pesticides)
  • Cumulative risk assessment
  • Dermal absorption
  • Molecular biology

Jos Boesten

  • Soil physics and soil chemistry
  • Mathematical modelling
  • Exposure of soil and aquatic organisms to pesticides
  • Leaching of pesticides to groundwater

Claudia Bolognesi

  • General toxicology
  • Carcinogenesis
  • Genetic toxicology
  • Environmental toxicology
  • Biomarkers
  • Molecular epidemiology
  • Risk assessment of plant protection products
  • Risk assessment of environmental chemicals

Theo Brock

  • Ecology of freshwater ecosystems
  • Aquatic ecotoxicology
  • Microcosm/mesocosm research
  • The species sensitivity distribution approach
  • Ecological risk assessment of pesticides and other contaminants in freshwater ecosystems
  • Regulatory procedures in pesticide risk assessment with reference to higher tiers
  • Linking exposure to effects

Ettore Capri

  • Fate assessment
  • Modeling
  • Soil Science
  • Agronomy
  • Effect and Exposure reduction
  • Pesticide analysis
  • Monitoring

Karen Ildico Hirsch-Ernst

  • Toxicology and regulatory toxicology
  • Pharmacology
  • Endocrinology
  • Biochemistry and molecular cell biology
  • Xenobiotic metabolism and transport
  • Plant protection products and their chemical active substances

Andy Hart

  • Ecotoxicology
  • Ecological/Environmental exposure and risk assessment
  • Dietary exposure and risk assessment of residues of plant protection products in food and feed commodities
  • Uncertainty analysis (quantitative and qualitative)

Michael Klein

  • Physical-chemical properties of substances
  • QSAR
  • Environmental exposure, Environmental risk assessment
  • Mathematical modelling and computer model development
  • Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

Kyriaki Machera

  • Toxicology and regulatory toxicology
  • Non dietary exposure and risk assessment of plant protection products

Bernadette Ossendorp

  • Dietary exposure and risk assessment of residues of plant protection products in food and feed commodities
  • Methods of analysis of plant protection products and of their residues
  • Non dietary exposure and risk assessment of plant protection products

Annette Petersen

  • Dietary exposure of chemicals, especially pesticides
  • Probabilistic modelling of dietary exposure
  • Risk assessment of residues of chemicals, especially pesticides, in food and
  • Evaluation of analytical methods for determination of pesticides in food and
  • Evaluation of residues in food and feed for MRL setting
  • Evaluation of pesticides and their residues for authorisation according to Directive
  • Regulation 11071/2009
  • Evaluation of pesticides for national approval of plant protection products

Yolanda Pico

  • Food Chemistry
  • Human Nutrition
  • Toxicology
  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Food Safety
  • Pesticide Residue Determination
  • Estimation of Daily Intakes
  • Food and environmental risk assessment of contaminants and residues
  • Emerging contaminants evaluation
  • Dietary Risk Assessment of pesticides

Andreas Schäffer

  • Metabolism and binding of pesticides in soil, aquatic systems and plants
  • Coupling fate and ecotoxicology aspects of pesticides in soil
  • Remediation of contaminated soil and water (Phytoremediation)

Paulo Sousa

  • Soil ecotoxicology
  • Higher tier testing (Microcosms and Terrestrial Model Ecosystems)
  • Soil ecology
  • Indicators of biodiversity and soil functions
  • Effect assessment of pesticides in tropical and temperate systems
  • Ecological risk assessment of contaminated sites

Walter Steurbaut

  • Plant protection products and their chemical active substances
  • Physical-chemical properties of plant protection products and their active substances
  • Methods of analysis of plant protection products and of their residues
  • Non dietary exposure and risk assessment of plant protection products
  • Environmental fate and behaviour of plant protection products
  • Environmental exposure and risk assessment

Anita Strömberg

  • Agronomy, plant pathology
  • Efficacy testing of PPPs
  • Pesticides residues for consumers and risk assessment
  • Induced resistance in plants and organic agriculture
  • PPPs and their microbiological substances

Maria Tasheva

  • Plant protection products and their chemical active substances
  • Toxicology and regulatory toxicology
  • Human risk assessment
  • Cumulative risk assessment
  • Toxicological evaluation of chemicals
  • Non dietary exposure and risk assessment of plant protection products to human health

Ton Van der Linden

  • Soil chemistry
  • Mathematical modelling
  • Monitoring of pesticides in soil, groundwater, surface water and air
  • Assessment of leaching to groundwater
  • Assessment of persistence in soil
  • Assessment of emissions from covered crops, in soil-bound and soilless cultivations

Christiane Vleminckx

  • Toxicology and regulatory toxicology
  • Non dietary exposure and risk assessment of plant protection products
  • Plant protection products and their chemical active substances
  • Genotoxicity, carcinogenicity, developmental and reproduction toxicity
  • Biomonitoring
  • Toxicological evaluations of chemicals, food contaminants, food additives
  • Classification and labelling of chemicals

View the Declarations of Interests of former PPR Panel members for 2006 - 2009.