Professor Nicole Grobert has been elected Chair of the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to the European Commission. Professor Sir Paul Nurse, Director of the Francis Crick Institute, joins her as Deputy Chair.
The European Commission's Group of Chief Scientific Advisors provides the Commission with high quality, timely and independent scientific advice on specific policy issues where such advice is critical to the development of Union policies or legislation. Professor Grobert and Professor Sir Paul Nurse will succeed German particle physicist Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer, former Director of CERN and Dutch empirical sociologist Professor Pearl Dysktra, Deputy Chair and former Vice President of KNAW), respectively from mid-November 2020.
Professor Grobert has been a Fellow of the College since 2012. Her research group focuses on the synthesis, processing, and characterisation of novel carbon and non-carbon-based nanomaterials, including nanoparticles, nanotubes, nanorods, graphene and other 2D nanomaterials. Multifunctional hierarchical nanostructures are also developed and investigated for their implementation in the health-care sectors and for their use in energy applications.
She is a vocal defender of best practices and efficient leadership, experience obtained over almost twenty years as a frontline researcher and representative of young researchers in Europe, having previously been the Chair of the Young Academy of Europe and a founder member. She has been awarded three Royal Society Research Fellowships and has held has also held four ERC Grants. Moreover, she has been selected as an outstanding young scientist by the Royal Society in 2005, the STS Forum in 2008, and the World Economic Forum in 2013. In 2018, she was elected as Member of the Academia Europaea.
Commenting on her election Professor Grobert said: "Science Advice for policy has become more important than ever. For society to be able to tackle current and future challenges it is critically important for policymakers, scientists across the subjects, and the public to work together hand in hand – and this concept is pivotal to the mission of the European Commission's Group of Chief Scientific Advisors. It is a huge honour and responsibility to have been elected as Chair to this group. I am looking forward to continuing the fruitful collaboration with the Chief Scientific Advisors."