Dr Catherine Rhodes was Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk from 2019 to 2021, and an Academic Project Manager at CSER for three years before that. She was also a Senior Research Associate with the Biosecurity Research Initiative at St Catharine’s College (BioRISC). Catherine now has affiliate status with both CSER and BioRISC.
In the context of addressing global risks, her work broadly focuses on understanding the intersection and combination of risk stemming from technologies and risk stemming from governance (or lack of it). Catherine has particular expertise in international governance of biotechnology, biosecurity and broader biological risk management issues. She has a background in international relations, but has engaged in extensive interdisciplinary work. Her PhD was funded as part of a Project to Strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention at the Bradford Disarmament Research Centre, and she retains a strong interest in international actions to prevent misuse of bioscience. This includes contributions to projects on the development of biosecurity and ethics education and on improving science and technology review in the biological and chemical weapons control regimes. Catherine worked for the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation at Manchester University from 2008-2015, where her work included: elaborating the meaning and content of scientific responsibility at the global level; investigation of science advisory processes in international organisations; and a substantial study of the international governance of genetic resources, which has significant implications for the use of biosciences in managing major global challenges.
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A solution scan of societal options to reduce transmission and spread of respiratory viruses: SARS-CoV-2 as a case study
Peer-reviewed paper by William Sutherland, Nigel G. Taylor, David C. Aldridge, Philip Martin, Catherine Rhodes, Gorm Shackelford, S. J. Beard, Haydn Belfield, Andrew J. Bladon, Cameron Brick, Alec P. Christie, Andrew P. Dobson, Harriet Downey, Amelia S.C. Hood, Fangyuan Hua, Alice C. Hughes, Rebecca M. Jarvis, Douglas MacFarlane, Silviu O. Petrovan
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Accumulating evidence using crowdsourcing and machine learning: a living bibliography about existential risk and global catastrophic risk
Peer-reviewed paper by Gorm Shackelford, Luke Kemp, Catherine Rhodes, Lalitha Sundaram, Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, S. J. Beard, Haydn Belfield, Julius Weitzdörfer, Shahar Avin, Dag Sørebø, Elliot M. Jones, John B. Hume, David Price, David Pyle, Daniel Hurt, Theodore Stone, Harry Watkins, Lydia Collas, William Sutherland
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Special Issue: Existential risk to humanity
Peer-reviewed paper by Olle Häggström, Catherine Rhodes
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Resetting the frame
Report by Catherine Rhodes, Seth Baum, Ariel Conn, Sebastian Farquhar, Malini Mehra, Magali Reghezza, Ama Van Dantzig, Alexandra Wandel, Robert Wiblin, Kevin Wong
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Point of View: A transatlantic perspective on 20 emerging issues in biological engineering
Peer-reviewed paper by Bonnie Wintle, Catherine Rhodes, Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Christian R. Boehm, William Sutherland, Robert Doubleday, Jennifer C Molloy, Piers Millett, Laura Adam, Rainer Breitling, Rob Carlson, Rocco Casagrande, Malcolm Dando, Eric Drexler, Brett Edwards, Tol Ellis, Nicholas G Evans, Richard Hammond, Jim Haseloff, Linda Kahl, Todd Kuiken, Benjamin R Lichman, Colette A Matthewman, Johnathan A Napier, Nicola J Patron, Edward Perello, Philip Shapira, Joyce Tait, Eriko Takano
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Informing management of lockdowns and a phased return to normality: a Solution Scan of non-pharmaceutical options to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission
Report by William Sutherland, David C. Aldridge, Philip Martin, Catherine Rhodes, Gorm Shackelford, S. J. Beard, Andrew J. Bladon, Cameron Brick, Mark Burgman, Alec P. Christie, Lynn V. Dicks, Andrew P. Dobson, Harriet Downey, Fangyuan Hua, Amelia S.C. Hood, Alice C. Hughes, Rebecca M. Jarvis, Douglas MacFarlane, Anne-Christine Mupepele, William H. Morgan, Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Stefan J. Marciniak, Cassidy Nelson, Clarissa Rios Rojas, Katherine A. Sainsbury, Rebecca K. Smith, Lalitha Sundaram, Hannah Tankard, Nigel G. Taylor, Ann Thornton, John Watkins, Thomas B. White, Kate Willott, Silviu O. Petrovan, Haydn Belfield
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Point of View: Bioengineering horizon scan 2020
Peer-reviewed paper by Luke Kemp, Laura Adam, Christian R. Boehm, Rainer Breitling, Rocco Casagrande, Malcolm Dando, Appolinaire Djikeng, Nicholas Evans, Richard Hammond, Kelly Hills, Lauren Holt, Todd Kuiken, Alemka Markotić, Piers Millett, Johnathan A Napier, Cassidy Nelson, Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Anne Osbourn, Megan Palmer, Nicola J Patron, Edward Perello, Wibool Piyawattanametha, Vanessa Restrepo-Schild, Clarissa Rios Rojas, Catherine Rhodes, Anna Roessing, Deborah Scott, Philip Shapira, Christopher Simuntala, Robert DJ Smith, Lalitha Sundaram, Eriko Takano, Gwyn Uttmark, Bonnie Wintle, Nadia B Zahra, William Sutherland
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80 Questions for UK Biological Security
Paper by Luke Kemp, David C.Aldridge, Olaf Booy, Hilary Bower, Des Browne, Mark Burgmann, Austin Burt, Andrew A. Cunningham, Malcolm Dando, Jaimie T. A. Dick, Christopher Dye, Sam Weiss Evans, Belinda Gallardo, H. Charles J. Godfray, Ian Goodfellow, Simon Gubbins, Lauren Holt, Kate E. Jones, Hazem Kandil, Phillip Martin, Mark McCaughan, Caitríona McLeish, Thomas Meany, Kathryn Millett, Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Nicola J. Patron, Catherine Rhodes, Helen E. Roy, Gorm Shackelford, Derek Smith, Nicola Spence, Helene Steiner, Lalitha Sundaram, Silja Voeneky, John R. Walker, Harry Watkins, Simon Whitby, James Wood, William Sutherland