RISK newsletter:
SRA-Europe: 1996 Annual Meeting the Largest

Source: RISK newsletter, Third Quarter 1996, published by the Society for Risk Analysis

Editor’s note: This article is based on information provided by Ragnar E. L&oumlfstedt, 1996 SRA-Europe conference director, and Ray Kemp, president of SRA-Europe.

Using the theme "Risk in a Modern Society--Lessons from Europe," the 1996 Annual Meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis-Europe was the largest ever. It was held June 3-5 at the University of Surrey in Guildford, United Kingdom, and was opened by the mayor of Guildford, John D. Woodhatch.

"The conference was a huge success, with more than 280 attendees from 30 countries," said Conference Director Ragnar E. L&oumlfstedt, who is a lecturer in social geography at the University of Surrey. "The host country dominated with 130 participants, but there also was a high influx of Swedes and Germans. It also was encouraging that there was a large team of Americans."

L&oumlfstedt credited the high turnout in part to the interest in bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as Mad Cow Disease, and the massive media attention it had received.

Organizers also generated pre-publicity by publishing 10 of the conference’s papers in advance in a special section on risk in The (London) Times Higher Education Supplement, one of the largest higher education weeklies in the world with a readership of over 70,000. "The advance publication led to interviews with various local and national radio stations and with national broadsheets," L&oumlfstedt said.

Distinguished Scientist Award

At the meeting, Joanne Linnerooth-Bayer, leader of the Risk, Policy, and Complexity Programme at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria, received the SRA-Europe Distinguished Scientist Award. "The award was given in recognition of Dr. Linnerooth-Bayer’s pioneering work in risk and siting issues," said SRA-Europe President Ray Kemp, who is now manager of risk services for Dames and Moore in northwest Europe. "She played an important role in establishing IIASA as a premier research group in Europe by undertaking, amongst other things, path-breaking research on the problems of siting liquid natural gas terminals and on the role of risk perception in the understanding of energy scenarios."

Invited Speakers

The meeting’s keynote address was given by David Slater, a director of the U.K. Environmental Agency in Bristol, who spoke on the future role of risk assessment and risk management in environmental regulation. Plenary speakers included Ortwin Renn of the Center of Technology Assessment in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, who reviewed the past three decades of risk research, and Lennart Sj&oumlberg of the Stockholm School of Economics’ Center for Risk Research in Sweden, who spoke on the determinants and consequences of perceived risks. At an evening reception, Jim McQuaid, chief scientist of the U.K. Health and Safety Executive in London, spoke about the United Kingdom’s efforts to introduce risk assessment across various government ministries.

Four Themes

The meeting sessions followed four tracks organized and led by U.K. members of the Technical Committee. The tracks were: Food, Technology, and Risk, led by Lynn Frewer of the Institute of Food Research in Reading, David Tennant of TAS International in Malvern, and Marion Wooldridge of the Central Veterinary Laboratory in Addlestone; Industrial Risk and Insurance, led by Tom Horlick-Jones of the University of Surrey and Richard Taylor of Magnox Electric in Barnwood; Risk Communication, led by John Handmer of Middlesex University in London; and New Trends in Risk Management, led by SRA-Europe President Kemp.

Special Events

The annual meeting also featured several special events.

A pre-meeting workshop on risk management practices in the United States was organized by former SRA president D. Warner North of Decision Focus Inc. in Mountain View, California; SRA Councilor Gail Charnley of the federal Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management in Washington, D.C.; and Steven Lewis of Exxon Biomedical Sciences Inc. in East Millstone, New Jersey.

A symposium track included discussions on post-normal science with talks by Jerry Ravetz of Research Methods Consultancy in London and Eugene Rosa of Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. It also included a session on siting organized by Linnerooth-Bayer and Howard Kunreuther of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

A panel discussion was held on present-day risk controversies, including the off-shore oil facility Brent Spar and BSE. The panel included Stuart MacDiarmid of the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Sarah Parkin, the former leader of the U.K. Green Party.

The annual meeting also hosted the annual Geneva Association lecture, which this year was given by Kunreuther on managing losses and providing protection against catastrophic risks. An all-day workshop on risk and insurance, co-ordinated by Tom Horlick-Jones of the Centre for Environmental Strategy in Guildford, followed the lecture.

Paper Abstracts

Abstracts of papers presented at the meeting were published in the conference proceedings, which were distributed at the meeting. The abstracts are expected to be on the Internet at http://www.riskworld.com by year end, and some will appear in a special European section of SRA’s Risk Analysis: An International Journal.

U.S. Representatives

U.S. attendees representing the SRA parent organization included SRA President John Graham of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts; SRA President-elect Rae Zimmerman of New York University in New York City; and former SRA president Robert G. Tardiff of EA Engineering, Science, and Technology Inc. in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Technical Committee

In addition to those named above, the meeting’s Technical Committee included Professor R. Clift as the conference chair and Jean Libaert as the conference administrator, both from the University of Surrey, as well as numerous other local and international representatives.

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