Members of the Scientific Committee

The Scientific Committee brings together highly qualified risk assessment experts from a number of European nationalities with expertise in a range of relevant fields. It is composed of the Chairpersons of EFSA’s Scientific Panels plus six independent scientists.

Scientific Committee 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 Scientific Committee 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 Scientific Committee Panel members for 2009 - 2012.

Scientific Committee Members and their areas of expertise

Vittorio Silano – Chair

  • Human health risk assessment
  • Environmental risk assessment
  • Public Health
  • Toxicology
  • Human Nutrition
  • Food hygiene
  • Chemistry
  • Biochemistry
  • Health and food regulation
  • Botanicals and natural substances

Ada Knaap – Vice-Chair

  • Genetic Toxicology
  • Carcinogenesis
  • Toxicology
  • Exposure assessment
  • Risk Assessment of all types of chemicals

David Lovell – Vice-Chair

  • Statistics
  • Genetics / genomics
  • Bioinformatics
  • Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA)
  • Mathematical Modelling
  • Toxicology

Boris Antunovic

  • Veterinary medicine
  • Animal health
  • Animal welfare
  • Food hygiene
  • Food consumption and exposure assessment
  • Human health risk assessment
  • Environmental risk assessment
  • Mathematical modelling

Susan Barlow

  • Qualification in Physiology, Pharmacology and toxicology
  • Human health risk assessment
  • Chemical risk assessment for food additives, contaminants, food contact materials, flavourings, pesticides, biocides, industrial chemicals
  • Reproductive, developmental and endocrine toxicology

Franciscus J.M. Smulders

  • Veterinary Medicine
  • Food Microbiology
  • Meat Hygiene and Technology
  • Muscle Biology
  • Risk Assessment of Biohazards
  • Risk Assessment of Animal Welfare

Andrew Chesson – Chair of the FEEDAP Panel

  • Animal and human nutrition
  • Microbiology
  • Biological chemistry
  • Food and feed chemistry
  • Safety and efficacy assessment of feed additives

Albert Flynn – Chair of the NDA Panel

  • Human nutrition
  • Nutritional biochemistry
  • Nutritional epidemiology
  • Food consumption, dietary surveys
  • Scientific substantiation of health claims
  • Nutrient requirements
  • Risk assessment of nutrients
  • Exposure assessment
  • Risk-benefit assessment of food fortification

Anthony Hardy – Chair of the PPR Panel

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

Iona Pratt – Chair of the CEF Panel

  • Toxicology, biochemistry, organic chemistry (scientific qualifications)
  • Design and interpretation of toxicological studies
  • Histopathology
  • Carcinogenicity (mechanisms and mode of action)
  • Risk assessment of food additives, flavourings, food contact materials, nutrient sources and other chemicals in food

Michael John Jeger – Chair of the PLH Panel

  • Plant pathogens and risk assessment (general)
  • Plant disease epidemiology (fungi and bacteria)
  • Plant virus epidemiology (including vector population dynamics)
  • Integrated disease management (as a component of IPM)
  • Evolution of pathogen virulence and pesticide resistance
  • Forest pathology and tree health
  • Disease in natural plant communities
  • Climate change and plant disease ecology
  • Network analysis of trade pathways
  • Mathematical models of epidemics

Harry Albert Kuiper – Chair of the GMO Panel

  • Food science and Toxicology
  • Research food contaminants, food constituents and residues of veterinary drugs and agrochemicals
  • Structure-function relationships of proteins
  • Member of the EU Scientific Committee on Plants and of the EU Joint Working Group on Novel Foods and GMO’s
  • Member of OECD Task Force on Novel Foods and Feed
  • FAO/WHO Expert on Food Biotechnology
  • Member International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)
  • Co-ordinator of EU funded research programs (FLAIR Concerted Action “In Vitro Toxicological Studies and Real-Time Analysis of Residues in Food”, EU Thematic Network “Safety Evaluation of Genetically Modified Foods” (ENTRANSFOOD), Integrated Project ‘Promoting Food Safety through a New Integrated Risk Analysis Approach for Foods’ (SAFE FOODS)

Ivonne Rietjens – Chair of the ANS Panel

  • Natural toxins
  • Functional food ingredients
  • Physiologically based kinetic and dynamic models for low dose cancer risk extrapolation
  • Genetic polymorphisms and consequences of life style factors for individual sensitivity and risk assessment
  • Alternative methods for animal testing
  • Nanotoxicology
  • Food additives
  • Food contaminants
  • Flavourings
  • Nutrient sources

Birgit Noerrung – Chair of the BIOHAZ Panel

  • Food microbiology
  • Food Hygiene
  • Microbiological Criteria
  • Decontamination
  • HACCP
  • Food-borne Zoonoses
  • Food-borne viruses
  • Risk assessment

Joseph Rudolf Schlatter – Chair of the CONTAM Panel

  • Risk assessment of chemicals in food
  • Mycotoxins in food
  • Inherent plant toxicants
  • Chemical compounds occurring during food processing
  • Metals in food
  • Residues of veterinary medicinal products in food
  • Food additives
  • Benchmark dose modelling
  • Carcinogenicity
  • Mode of action

Philippe Vannier – Chair of the AHAW Panel

  • Veterinary virology
  • Diagnosis
  • Epidemiology and risk assessment
  • Enzootic diseases
  • Transboundary disease
  • Biosafety
  • Epidemiology
  • Animal health and welfare
  • Vaccinology
  • Control of infectious animal diseases