Terje Traavik

Dr. Terje Traavik, PhD, is the author of more than 200 scientific articles and book chapters. He was trained as a virologist at the National Institute of Health from 1970-76. Thereafter he founded, and became the first professor of, virology at the newly established University of Tromsö, Norway from 1977-2003. He has held a high number of national and international assignments. At the present he serves as the Executive Committee Chairman for the GE/GMO Biosafety Capacity Building Program covered by a MoU between GenØk-Centre for Biosafety, Norway and Norad, the Norwegian directorate for foreign aid. He is also a member of the Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board and an official consultant for EMEA (European Medicines Agency). He is listed on the UN Roster of Biosafety Experts for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Being originally a medical and molecular virologist, Traavik later crossed into molecular and cellular cancer research. In 1992 he received the Erna and Olav Aakre Foundation Prize for Excellent Cancer Research. In the early 1990s he was the Board Chairman of the national research program “Environmental effects of biotechnology”, which was funded by the Research Council of Norway. In 1997 he initiated and became the first Director of GenØk-Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology, and since 2003 he is professor of gene ecology at the University of Tromsö. From 2007 GenØk has obtained an official status as the national competence centre of biosafety.