Posts Tagged ‘ National Academy of Sciences ’


At the National Academy of Sciences

December 30, 2014 | Posted by Gavin Huntley-Fenner | No Comments

Gavin speaking at NAS

I was recently honored to be asked to present on the “Potential Risks and Benefits of Gain-of-Function Research” at National Academy of Sciences.

It was quite a meeting. Very interesting conversations evolving about whether and how to safely conduct research involving pathogenic viruses with pandemic potential. More to come on that later.

My presentation was on Human Factors and Risk Analysis. I drew on my experience conducting hazard analyses and my background as a cognitive psychologist. I essentially tried to make the case for ensuring that however  risks and benefits are assessed, we ought to strive to understand to role of human error, accept that human error is inevitable and design systems that have layers of safety built in.

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