We are delighted to have appointed five new staff over the past five months, three in the External Relations team and two to strengthen the Human Genomics and Translational Data (HGTD) team.

Anamika Chatterjee – Scientific Officer, Human Genomics and Translational Data

Anamika joins ELIXIR in a newly created role as Scientific Officer in the Human Genomics and Translational Data (HGTD) team. In this role, Anamika will work on the HealthyCloud project with the aim of developing a strategic agenda for the Health Research and Innovation Cloud (HRIC). She will engage with stakeholders of the HRIC to ensure the strategic agenda is shaped around their needs and motivations, as well as concerns regarding a federated health data infrastructure to enable health research across Europe. 

With an engineering background in biotechnology and a masters in bioethics, her interests lie in technology ethics, for example, technology assessment, ELSI, unintended consequences, disruptions as well as other (soft) impacts technological interventions have in routine practices within society. In her previous role, she worked at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology as a doctoral candidate where she engaged with stakeholders within the life sciences research data ecosystem to identify the epistemic, as well as ethical dilemmas that undermine compliance with common data management standards.

Anamika started her role on 15 November 2021.

Giselle Kerry – Programme Manager for Human Genomics and Translational Data

Giselle joins ELIXIR as Programme Manager for Human Genomics and Translational Data (HGTD). Giselle is responsible for the overall coordination of ELIXIR HGTD related projects, service portfolio and programme as well as coordination of a technical roadmap for federation of human data access.

Previously, Giselle worked at EMBL-EBI for the European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA) firstly as a helpdesk officer, before being promoted to Senior Project Manager and Senior Helpdesk Officer - it was in this role that she became heavily involved with the Federated EGA project. Prior to her time at EGA, Giselle worked at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in a variety of roles before becoming their Data Access and Regulatory Support Officer which meant ensuring the Sanger was compliant with the Human Tissue Act and managing Sanger’s data access requests.

The post was created following the departure of Gary Saunders, who we wish well in his new position as Data Director of EATRIS.

Giselle started her role on 1 January 2022.

Despoina Sousoni – Outreach Officer – Industry

Despoina joins ELIXIR as Outreach Officer - Industry in the External Relations team, responsible for implementing the Hub’s Industry Strategy and industry engagement activities of EU funded projects, such as FAIRplus BY-COVID, CONVERGE, and others.

Previously, Despoina worked at UNESCO, contributing to the development of the Recommendation on Open Science and building Science, Technology and Innovation national roadmaps. Before UNESCO, she was a Scientific Officer in the European Research Council Executive Agency and the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Despoina has a PhD in Environmental Microbiology at the University of Warwick, awarded with a NERC-CENTA studentship.

Despoina takes over from Kathi Lauer who served as Industry Officer from 2018 and is now Senior Scientific Coordinator – Infectious Diseases and Scientific Lead of the BY-COVID project.

Despoina started her role on 17 January.

Elaine Westwick – Communications Officer

Elaine joins ELIXIR as Communications Officer in the External Relations team, responsible for core ELIXIR communications, communications of the BY-COVID and ELIXIR-CONVERGE projects and strategic communications.

Previously, Elaine worked as Communications Coordinator for the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium with the University of Cambridge. Elaine has a PhD in protein crystallography and an MBiochem in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and spent five years in Astex Pharmaceuticals in laboratory data management and project management. Prior to working for COG-UK, Elaine founded a Cambridge-based outreach organisation running events linking body awareness and science communication, and was a Trustee for the local Scout Association.

Elaine started her role on 17 January.

Zippy (Yun-Yun) Tseng – Communications Officer

Zippy joins ELIXIR as Communications Officer in the External Relations team, responsible for social media, industry communications, events and communication for the B1MG and FAIRplus projects.

Previously, Zippy worked at Science in the City, Malta, contributing to the social media management, stakeholder engagement and event logistics. Prior to working for Science in the City, Zippy worked as a specialist at the Centre for Global Affairs and Science Engagement under the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan. Zippy holds a MSc in Science Communication from the University of Edinburgh.

Zippy started her role on 14 February.

We thank Erin Haskell and Xènia Pérez Sitjà for their time as Communications Officers, and wish them luck in their next adventures - Erin with her young family and Iceland and Xènia as Data Stewardship Community Manager at ELIXIR-UK.