Bruna De Marchi is an Italian social scientist currently affiliated with the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT) at the University of Bergen, Norway. She previously served as head of the Mass Emergencies Programme at the Institute of International Sociology of Gorizia (ISIG), Italy. In the early 1990s, she was seconded as a national expert to the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Ispra, Italy. Her research and teaching focus on the social and organizational dimensions of disasters, emergencies, and crises. In recent years, her work has increasingly addressed health and environmental challenges in areas affected by industrial pollution, with a strong emphasis on transdisciplinary collaboration and participatory research methodologies.
Roland Wedekind, PhD, is a scientist in the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs programme and serves as the lead-rapporteur for the section on exposure characterization. He was the responsible officer for the meeting to develop the Monographs Volume 135 on PFOA and PFOS.
He holds a B.Sc. in chemistry and a M.Sc. in toxicology. He was a pre- and postdoctoral researcher in the Nutrition and Metabolism section at IARC. His work in molecular nutrition focussed on dietary biomarker development and the impact of diet and lifestyle on the metabolome employing targeted and untargeted metabolomics methods.
Michele A. Riva, MD, PhD, is Full Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Milano-Bicocca and Director of the Department of Occupational Health at the IRCCS San Gerardo dei Tintori. A physician and specialist in Occupational Medicine, he combines clinical practice with historical research across various medical fields, with a focus on the history of occupational health. His work examines how the evolution of medical knowledge informs today’s science and healthcare. He serves on editorial boards and scientific committees in both medical and historical fields and has published widely in top international journals and academic monographs.
Valentina Bollati is a full professor at the University of Milan. She holds a degree in Medical Biotechnology and is the head of the Environmental Epigenetics Laboratory at the University of Milan. She holds a PhD in Occupational Medicine, pioneering a new line of research that explores how the environment influences epigenetic and molecular mechanisms, and how these are then associated with health. Her research approach spans environmental health, medicine, epidemiology, and cellular and molecular biology. Her research has explored the interaction between environment and epigenetics, in the context of multiple pathologies such as cancer, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases, depression, and pregnancy-related disorders. Her first independent line of research was a project on “Epigenetic mutations in malignant melanoma,” funded in 2010 by the Italian Association for Cancer Research. In 2011, she began to explore the role of extracellular vesicles and miRNAs in mediating the effects of air pollution on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. The “SPHERE” study was funded by an ERC Starting Grant. The MAMELI project, funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant, represents a new step towards understanding the mechanisms that explain how the exposome influences human well-being.
Nancy B. Hopf, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Lausanne and Head of the Exposure Science Sector at Unisanté, University Center for Primary Care and Public Health, Switzerland. She is an industrial toxicologist and certified industrial hygienist and recognized internationally for her expertise in human biomonitoring of occupational exposures. Her research has focused on internal dose assessment of chemical exposures using biological matrices such as urine, blood, and exhaled air. Dr. Hopf has led and contributed to numerous biomonitoring studies across Europe and the U.S., including field campaigns in industrial settings and methodological innovations in toxicokinetics. She serves as the chair of the ACGIH Biological Exposure Indices (BEI) Committee, contributing to the development of biomonitoring values for use in occupational exposure assessment.
Joana Lobo Vicente is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she works as an Expert in Chemicals, Environment & Human Health at the European Environment Agency (EEA). Her work bridges environmental science, health and chemicals policy, with a focus on promoting evidence-based decision-making and cross-sectoral collaboration across Europe.
Joana coordinated the EEA’s involvement in two flagship initiatives: the Human Biomonitoring for the European Union (HBM4EU) and the on-going EU Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC), both aimed at generating policy-relevant knowledge on human exposure to hazardous substances and its impact on the environment and health.
She has a strong background in chemistry, with an MSc in Forensic Science and a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from King’s College London.
