Tim Trevan

Tim Trevan is the Executive Director of the International Council for the Life Sciences.  ICLS promotes the responsible conduct of the life sciences, running programmes in the MENA region to encourage the adoption and spread of best practices in biosafety and biosecurity, and convening meetings of leading experts in the field of synthetic biology to address the practical issues of how to encourage the exploitation of this field for society’s benefit while safeguarding the public against potential risks. 

Earlier, he was the political advisor to the UN Special Commission for Iraq (UNSCOM).  Before that, he was a British diplomat, serving in Yemen and at the Conference on Disarmament, and at the FCO dealing with weapons of mass destruction and later with the rules of war, refugees and human rights issues.  His interests cover biosafety and biosecurity, international peace and security and health security.  Tim has commentated extensively on television and radio and in print media on these issues. He has written commentary for the Nature, Sunday Times, the Guardian, and the Sun in Britain and the Los Angeles Times.  His book, Saddam’s Secrets, about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programmes, was published by HarperCollins in 1998.  Tim graduated in Cellular Pathology from Bristol University, where his thesis was on chemical carcinogenesis, and obtained his MBA from INSEAD.