KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

David Gee
European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark

David Gee was educated in politics and economics and has worked for over 30 years at the science/policy interface of occupational and environmental risk assessment & reduction, with UK Trade Unions; the Environmental Group, Friends of the Earth, where he was Director; and, since December 1995, with the European Environment Agency, an EU information providing body in Copenhagen, where he is responsible for “Emerging Issues and Scientific Liaison” and Group leader for Science, Policy and Innovation. He has published reports and lectured on many issues, including Scientific Uncertainty,; the Precautionary Principle, Environmental Health, Environmental Taxes and Ecological Tax Reform, and Clean production/ Eco-efficiency.

SEGH 2008 Lecture title: Late onset environmental stressors: the implications for early prevention.

Prof. Luc Hens
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Luc Hens graduated as a Biologist and later received his Ph.D. in Biology from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), where he is at present Professor and Head of the Human Ecology Department. He also lectures at the Technical University of Sofia (Bulgaria). His specific area of research concerns the elucidation of interdisciplinary instruments for sustainable development. Professor Hens acts as an expert on environmental policy in several advisory councils in Belgium. He is the book review editor for the International Journal on Environmental Pollution, and editor of “Environment, Development and Sustainability”. He currently acts as vice-dean for educational affairs of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, of which the human ecology department is part of.

SEGH 2008 Lecture title: Health impact assessment of motorized mobility.

Prof. Klea Katsouyanni
National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, GR

Klea Katsoyanni is Professor in Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at the University of Athens Medical School. She has worked in Environmental Epidemiology for more than 20 years and is the Coordinator of the APHEA (Air Pollution and Health: a European Approach) network, a E.C. funded project which was established in 1992 and produced results which have contributed to the understanding of the air pollution health effects in Europe and the establishment of legislation for the management of air quality. She has been a member of several advisory Committees (E.C., W.H.O., etc.) in environmental health topics. She has more than 120 publications in peer reviewed journals, which have been cited more than 3500 times. She was awarded the 2006 Goldsmith award for sustained and outstanding contribution to the knowledge and practice of environmental epidemiology by the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology.

SEGH 2008 Lecture title: Effects of ambient particles on health.

Prof. Anthony J Newman Taylor
National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, UK

Professor Anthony Newman Taylor is Head of the National Heart and Lung Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, and Head of the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College, London. He has worked as Consultant Physician at Royal Brompton Hospital since 1977, currently been a Non-Executive Director, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust. He is also Chairman of Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, an expert advisory group to Department for Work and Pensions. His major clinical and research interests have been occupational lung diseases, asthma and eosinophilic lung diseases.

SEGH 2008 Lecture title: Mineral dusts and disease.

Assoc. Prof. Polyxeni Nicolopoulou-Stamati
National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, GR

Polyxeni Nicolopoulou- Stamati is a qualified Pathologist- Cytologist. She currently holds the position of Associate Professor of Pathology, teaching at the Medical School of the National University of Athens. She also works as invited professor at the VUB, teaching in the Master and Postgraduate Diploma programmes in Human Ecology. She is experienced in organising seminars, intensive courses and congresses, in building medical curricula and coordinating European Projects. She has worked as an Expert at the European Commission and has been the coordinator of the EU funded AREHNA (Awareness Raising about Environment and Health of Non-expert Advisors) project. At present she is the scientific coordinator of a 2 year Master programme of the Medical School of University of Athens entitled: “Environment and Health, Capacity Building for Decision Making”.

SEGH 2008 Lecture title: Environment and health: Focusing on endocrine disruption.

Dr Olle Selinus
Geological Survey of Sweden

Dr. Olle Selinus is a geochemist at the Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU). During the 1960s and 1970s he worked in mineral exploration and since the beginning of the 1980s his research work has been focused on environmental geochemistry, including research on medical geology. He is the organiser of several international conferences and has published over 80 manuscripts. Currently in charge of research and development at the geological survey. He serves as Editor-in-Chief for the book on "Essentials of Medical Geology", associate editor of Applied Geochemistry, officer of the Association of Applied Geochemists, and as president of the International Medical Geology Association. He has received several international awards and has been appointed Geologist of the Year (2005) in Sweden because of Medical Geology. He is also chairing the "Earth and Health" team of the United Nations initiative International Year of Planet Earth, member of the organising committee and vice president for the 33 International Geological Congress in Oslo in 2008, vice chairman of the National Committee of Geology at Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, chairman of the Swedish National Committee of the International Year of Planet Earth.

SEGH 2008 Lecture title: Medical geology- an international opportunity for the future.