FENS Forum on an Environmentally Friendly Model for Life Sciences

Inbar Caspi is association services and congress expert with more than 20 years of experience in consulting over 60 associations and managing more than 170 association congresses. Caspi is the former managing director of Kenes UK. For the past 6 years, Inbar has been supporting scientific and medical associations that organize their congress in-house or wish to take more ownership on their key activity while reaching their goals for growth, profit, education and high level of service. In her new capacity, she has worked with and managed in-house the congresses of some of the largest associations in Europe such as the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), the European Academy of Neurology (EAN), the European Pain Federation (EFIC), the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and others. Inbar is really passionate about minimizing the carbon footprint that is the outcome from our large international scientific gatherings and has exercised many eco-friendly principals in her work.

Rajnika Hirani is an award-winning sustainability professional with extensive experience in effecting change and innovation to deliver company sustainability goals and business models. Rajnika has been working in the sustainability field for 18 years. Hirani's experience spans various industries including nuclear, transport, construction, agriculture, waste, research and national government. A trained Lead ISO14001 auditor, with a proven track record in environmental management. She has excellent stakeholder engagement at all levels across all cultures and community groups. Rajnika has experience of working across small and multi-site organisations. She has strong links with peers and regulators with significant experience of influencing at policy making level. Rajnika has great corporate social responsibility experience, is a good communicator and an excellent leader who is able to balance sustainability and CSR requirements with commercial realities.

Rebecca Delker is a molecular and cell biologist interested in how the genome is organized and regulated to produce diversity. Delker received her BS at University of California, San Diego, and her PhD at Rockefeller University. She currently conducts research as a postdoctoral scientist at Columbia University and teaches introductory and upper level biology courses as visiting assistant professor at Manhattan College. Rebecca approaches her work with a broad lens, understanding science as an expression of who we are as people; thus, beyond the questions she asks of the cell, she is interested in interrogating our process of science, using the answers to guide the future of science.

Marta Rodríguez-Martínez is a research scientist at EMBL working with Lars Steinmetz studying system genetics and precision health. Rodríguez-Martínez earned her PhD in molecular biology at the IGH in France and did her postdoc with Jesper Svejstrup at the Francis Crick Institute in the UK. She has in parallel an interest in sustainability. At the Francis Crick Institute, she was part of the sustainability team as research sustainability manager. She has participated in several panels about research sustainability and written about the topic. She is also part of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project leadership corps and she currently participates in the sustainability initiative at EMBL.