New Chair appointed to expert committee

David Lovell has been appointed to serve as Chair of the Committee on Mutagenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COM).

As Chair, David will also be a member, ex officio, of the General Advisory Committee on Science (GACS) and of the Committee on Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COC).

GACS provides independent expert advice to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on the FSA’s use of science. COM and COC provide independent expert advice to the Agency in relation to mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of chemicals that can be present in food – an essential aspect of the FSA’s assessment of food safety.

The new Chair is a Reader in Medical Statistics in the Division of Biomedical Sciences at St. Georges, University of London. He was previously Associate Director and Head of Biostatistics Support to Clinical Pharmacogenomics at Pfizer Global Research and Development in Kent, where he provided data management and statistical support to pharmacogenetics and genomics.

David has conducted and managed research programmes on genetics, statistics and quantitative risk assessment. He is also a member of the Independent Scientific Advisory Committee, an expert committee of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

A member of COM since 2006, David will be in the post of Chair for three years, with effect from 1 November 2012.