Emerging Threats of Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology

Benjamin D. TRUMPDr. Benjamin D. TRUMP is a Research Social Scientist for the US Army Corps of Engineers.Dr. Trump’s work focuses on decision making and governance of activities under significantuncertainty, such as emerging and enabling technologies (synthetic biology, nanotechnology)and developing organizational, infrastructural, social, and informational resilience againstsystemic threats to complex interconnected systems. Dr. Trump served as a delegate to assist USpresence in OECD’s Global Science Forum in 2017, and was the President of the Society forRisk Analysis’ Decision Analysis and Risk Specialty Group in 2018-2019, as well as itsResilience Analysis Specialty Group in 2019-2020. He was selected as a Fellow of the EmergingLeaders in Biosecurity Initiative, Class of 2019. In December 2020, Dr. Trump was installed asthe Treasurer of the Society for Risk Analysis. Dr. Trump was also a contributing author oftheInternational Risk Governance Council’s Guidelines for the Governance of Systemic Risks, aswell as their 2nd Volume of the Resource Guide on Resilience. Dr. Trump is also frequentlyactive with several Advanced Research Workshops for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’sScience for Peace Programme. Co-authored with Dr. Igor Linkov, Dr. Trump’s book The Scienceand Practice of Resilience (2019) includes a detailed discussion of the methodological,philosophical, and governance-related work behind the concept of resilience. His follow-up bookwith Dr. Myriam Merad, Expertise Under Scrutiny (2020), addresses the challenges facingdecision makers of how to construct and implement scientifically formed and institutionally validdecisions within an environment of heightened uncertainty and public criticism. Dr. Trumpreceived his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, Department ofHealth Management and Policy in 2016. He received an M.S. (2012) in Public Policy andManagement and a B.S. in Political Science (2011) from Carnegie Mellon University.Marie-Valentine FLORINMarie-Valentine Florin is the Executive Director of the International Risk Governance Center(IRGC), at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. IRGC acts at theinterface between science and policy and is particularly active about risks related to emergingtechnologies, marked by complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. She continues to develop theconcepts and guidelines for risk governance established by the IRGC Foundation, with a focuson emerging and systemic risks, for which the risk and the resilience governance perspectives arerelevant. She convenes multi-stakeholder groups of experts to consider the particular risks andgovernance challenges that arise in specific sectors such as digital technologies, climateengineering, nanotechnology, or synthetic biology. Before joining the IRGC Foundation in 2006,Ms Florin spent the first part of her career (1984-1999) in an international socio-cultural researchand marketing consulting firm. She graduated from Science Po in Paris (public policy andmanagement) and then earned post-graduate diplomas in marketing strategy, sustainabledevelopment and environmental diplomacy. She is Society for Risk Analysis Fellow and amember of the Advisory Board to the Global Risk Report of the World Economic Forum.Edward J. PERKINSDr. Edward J. PERKINS is currently the Acting Army Deputy Chief Scientist and Army SeniorResearch Scientist for Environmental Networks and Genetic Toxicology with the Army Corps ofEngineers. His work focuses on using genetics and biotechnology to assess chemical hazardsand develop novel applications to support Army activities including new materials andsyntheticbiology. Dr. Perkins provides guidance for the Army and Department of Defense (DoD) on basicand applied research programs, in addition to consulting on issues of national and internationalimportance for the Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Defense, the United StatesEnvironmental Protection Agency, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment. He has published widely on genetics, toxicology and novel approaches for riskassessment, including 4 books and over 150 peer reviewed manuscripts and book chapters. Dr.Perkins has served many organizations as an expert panelist and has been a co-organizer formultiple national and international workshops and conferences. Dr Perkins received his Ph.D. inGenetics and Cell Biology from Washington State University in 1987 and a B.A. in Geneticsfrom University of Illinois in 1983. He completed his postdoctoral training in genetics at theUniversityof Washington and Washington State University.Igor LINKOVDr. Igor LINKOV is the Risk and Decision Science Focus Area Lead with the US ArmyEngineer Research and Development Center, and Adjunct Professor with Carnegie MellonUniversity. Dr. Linkov has managed multiple risk and resilience assessments and managementprojects in many application domains, including emerging materials and technologies,cybersecurity, transportation, supply chain, homeland security and defense, and criticalinfrastructure. He was part of several Interagency Committees and Working Groups tasked withdeveloping risk and resilience metrics and management approaches, including the US NationalNanotechnology Initiative. Dr. Linkov has organized more than thirty national and internationalconferences and continuing education workshops, including NATO workshops onNanotechnology in Portugal (2009), Climate Change in Iceland (2010, 2012),Resilience inPortugal (2016), Estonia (2018) and Finland (2019), as well as Chaired Program Committee for2015 and 2019 World Congresses on Risk in Singapore and Cape Town. He has publishedwidely on environmental policy, environmental modeling, and risk analysis, including twentyfive books and over 400 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in top journals, like Nature,Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Climate Change, among others. He has served on many reviewand advisory panels for DOD, DHS, FDA, EPA, NSF, EU and other US and internationalagencies. Dr. Linkov is Society for Risk Analysis Fellow and recipient of 2005 Chauncey StarrAward for exceptional contribution to Risk Analysis, 2014 Outstanding Practitioner Award aswell as 2019 Distinguished Educator Award. He is Elected Fellow with the AmericanAssociation for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Linkov has a B.S. and M.Sc. inPhysics and Mathematics (Polytechnic Institute) and a Ph.D. in Environmental, Occupational andRadiation Health (University of Pittsburgh). He completed his postdoctoral training in RiskAssessment at Harvard University.

• Chapter 1: Biosecurity for Synthetic Biology and Emerging Biotechnologies: Critical Challenges for Governance.- Chapter 2: Emerging Biosecurity Threats and Responses: A Review of Published and Gray Literature.- Chapter 3: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Considerations for Top-Down Governance for Biosecurity and Synthetic Biology.- Chapter 4: Biological standards and biosecurity: The unexplored link.- Chapter 5: Responsible Governance of Biosecurity in Armenia.- Chapter 6: Addressing Emerging Synthetic Biology Threats: The Role of Education and Outreach in Fostering Effective Bottom-Up Grassroots Governance.- Chapter 7: Cybersecurity and Public Health in the Age of COVID-19.- Chapter 8: Synthetic Biology Brings New Challenges to Managing Biosecurity and Biosafety.- Chapter 9: Emerging Biotechnology and Information Hazards.- Chapter 10: Technical Aspects of Biosecurity: Screening Guidance, Attribution, and Traceability.- Chapter 11: The Soil Habitat and Considerations for Synthetic Biology.- Chapter 12: Foresight in Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology Threats.- Chapter 13: Predicting Biosecurity Threats: Deployment and Detection of Biological Weapons.- Chapter 14: Promoting Effective Biosecurity Governance: Using Tripwires to Anticipate and Ameliorate Potentially Harmful Development Trends.