search

Osseweijer, P. (Patricia)

Research profile

Patricia Osseweijer (1958) has a PhD in science communication and a masters degree in molecular biology. In 1999 she was appointed Managing Director of the Department of Biotechnology and Executive Secretary for the Research School Biotechnological Sciences Delft Leiden at the Delft University of Technology. She initiated a new research and education group on society issues in biotechnology which led to the establishment of the Section Biotechnology and Society. She has organised many international workshops and courses in this field such as the international “Advanced Workshop on Bioethics and Public Perceptions of Biotechnology” in Oxford recently for the seventh occasion. Since 2002 Patricia is appointed Managing Director of the Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation. She developed its Genomics and Society Programme and became Programme Leader responsible for the coordination of the societal research projects in several universities and for the collaboration with the Netherlands Centre for Society and Genomics. She launched a successful science communication project for secondary schools for which she established the “Imagine” Life Sciences Foundation in 2005. In 2006 she received the Netherlands Biotechnology Society education award for this project which was also nominated for the 2006 EU Descartes Prize for Science Communication. Her research interests focus on the role of scientists in public interaction, public opinion forming, novel forms of public communication and ethics. She has published over thirty-five articles, reports and papers and delivered more than forty invited presentations. She has contributed to several national debates, radio interviews, newspaper articles and television presentations. 

Teaching

• Development and coordination:
  International Advanced Course on Bioethics and Public Perceptions of Biotechnology
  International Advanced Course on Strategic Communication in Biotechnology
• Contribution to a number of courses for post-graduate and graduate education
• Supervision of student placements