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Expert to speak on genetic engineering
Published by the Communications and Development Department
8 October 2003
An international expert on genetic engineering will present a free public lecture at the University on Tuesday evening 14 October.
Professor Terje Traavik, the Scientific Director of the Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology, Norway, will present Risks of genetic engineering: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, in C1 at 7pm.
He is internationally known as an adviser on the commercial application of gene-based technologies. He is the author of nearly 200 scientific and related publications including nearly 150 in the scientific peer-reviewed literature. He has appeared before governments around the world, is the Scientific Advisor to the Third World Network, and in 2001 testified before the New Zealand Royal Commission on Genetic Modification.
Professor Traavik says there could be risks related to the cultivation and consumption of GM crop plants. “A burning issue is whether, based on the present state of scientific knowledge, it is possible to perform reliable risk assessments . . . and if the answer is “no”, how we should proceed.”
Professor Traavik is in New Zealand as guest of the University’s New Zealand Institute of Gene Ecology. The Institute’s Director, Associate Professor Jack Heinemann, a lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences, said Professor Traavik’s talk would be of value to all with an interest in the gene-technology debate.
• Free public lecture. Risks of Genetic Engineering: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. University of Canterbury, Tuesday 14 October, 7 pm, Central Lecture Theatre C1. Sign-posted from Clyde Road.
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