Background

Richard holds a Chair in Environmental Risk Assessment, a position he took up in October 2008.  He has worked for a number of years at the interface between science and policy making at national and international levels, notably in the area of emerging risks associated with new technologies, an area he led on for the Environment Agency before moving to Westminster.

He moved back to the UK in 2003, where he managed the Environment and Human Health Programme and Ecosystem Science portfolios at the Environment Agency, including the Agency’s Ecotoxicology Laboratory. Richard led on emerging risks at the Agency, working with Defra, research councils, industry and other stakeholders, notably in the area of nanotechnologies. He is particularly interested in the concept of ‘Responsible Innovation’ and how organisations balance the opportunities presented by novel technologies with risk uncertainties, in an environment where information is often scarce and regulations absent or unclear. He is developing a platform that links ‘horizon scanning’ (or the identification of emerging innovations) with risk and benefits assessment. As part of this he is developing a socially-framed process to identify and prioritise risk uncertainties for new technologies and manage these to support decision making.

Richard is the Programme Co-ordinator of the Environmental Nanoscience Initiative (www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/nanoscience), a programme he founded with NERC, Defra and the Environment Agency in 2006. He chairs the Governments Nanotechnologies Environmental Risk Assessment Task force and OECD Steering Group on Nanotechnologies Risk Assessment. Richard has been a member of the NERC Peer Review College since 2004 and the Research Councils Nanotechnology Strategic Advisory Team since 2008. He is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Plymouth and Policy Studies Institute, his office base. In addition to his interests in emerging technologies he maintains a continuing interest in the development and application of biological effects measures (including biomarkers) within regulatory regimes and the relationships between environmental stressors and enzymes such as telomerase that are important in cellular proliferation, aging and cancer.

Research Interests

Richard has diverse research interests in the Environmental Sciences. He began his research career in the field of environmental chemistry and geochemistry, investigating how stable isotopes could be used to reconstruct past marine environments. He moved to the Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences (http://www.bios.edu/) in 1997, leading the tropical ecotoxicology group within the International Centre for Oceans and Human Health, with a particular interest in pollutant impacts in reef ecosystems and the development of biomarkers for health risk assessment.

Selected Publications

Owen R., Crane M., Deanne K., Handy R.D., Linkov .I, Depledge M.H. (2008) Strategic Approaches for the Management of Environmental Risk Uncertainties Posed by Nanomaterials. In Nanotechnologies: Risks and Benefits (Ed I. Linkov) Springer. 

Rocks, S.A., Owen, R., Pollard S.J., Dorey R.A., Harrison P.T., Levy, L.S., Handy R.D., Garrod J.F. (2008)  Environmental Risk Assessment of Manufactured Nanomaterials. In Environment and Human Health Impacts of Nanotechnology (Ed J. Lead). In press, Blackwell Publishing.

Hagger J.A., Jones M.B., Lowe D., Leonard D.R.P., Owen R., Galloway, T.S. (2008) Application of biomarkers for improving risk assessments of chemicals under the Water Framework Directive: a case study. Marine Pollution Bulletin 56 1111 - 1118.

Crane M., Handy R.D., Garrod J., Owen R.  Ecotoxicity test methods and environmental hazard assessment for engineered nanoparticles. Ecotoxicology 17: 421 - 437.

Handy R.D., Owen R., Valsami – Jones E (2008) The ecotoxicology of nanoparticles and nanomaterials: current status, knowledge gaps, challenges and future needs. Ecotoxicology 17: 315 – 325.

Owen R., Depledge M.H., Hagger J.A., Jones M.B., Galloway T.S. (2008) Biomarkers and environmental risk assessment: guiding principles from the human health field. Marine Pollution Bulletin 56: 613-619.

Handy R.D.,  v. d. Kammer F.,  Lead J.R., Hassellöv M., Owen R, Crane, M. (2008)The ecotoxicology and chemistry of Manufactured Nanoparticles.  Ecotoxicology 17 (4): 287-314

Owen R., Handy R. (2007) Formulating the problems for environmental risk assessment of nanomaterials. Environmental Science and Technology 41 (16): 5582-5588.

Owen R., Sarkis S., Bodnar A.G. (2007) Developmental pattern of telomerase expression in the sand scallop, Euvola ziczac.   Invertebrate Biology 126 (1): 40 – 45.

Filby, A.L., Neuparth T., Thorpe K.L., Owen R., Galloway T.S., Tyler C.R. (2007) Health impacts of estrogens in the environment, considering complex mixture effects. Environmental Health Perspectives 115: 1704 – 1710.

more publications

Research Groups / Key Appointments

• Visiting Fellow, Policy Studies Institute, London.
• Visiting Research Fellow, University of Plymouth.
• Lecturer, University of Exeter MSc Aquatic Biology and Resource Management.
• Lecturer: University of Oxford Biomedical Nanotechnology and Nanosafety MSc.
• Peer Review College member, UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) (since 2004).
• Member, NERC Services Review Group (2008).
• Member, NERC Science Achievements Review Panel (2008).
• Member, Research Councils Nanotechnologies Strategic Advisory Team (2008).
• Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution: Peer reviewer.
• Chair, UK Government Nanotechnologies Environmental and Human Health Risk Assessment Task Force.
• Chair, OECD Steering Group, Risk Assessment Approaches for Manufactured Nanomaterials   www.oecd.org/env/nanosafety
• Founder and Programme Co-ordinator, UK Environmental Nanosciences Initiative  (Interdisciplinary Nanosciences R & D programme) www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/nanoscience
• Guest Editor: Marine Pollution Bulletin and Ecotoxicology journals.
• Steering Committee Member and Work Package Leader, EU FP7 Environment and Health ERANET
• Steering Committee Member and Work Package Leader, EU FP6 Programme on Emerging Pollutants (EU NORMAN) http://www.emerging-pollutants.net/.
• Member, Royal Society Synthetic Biology Policy Co-ordination Group.