Maurice Whelan

Head of the Chemical Safety and Alternative Methods Unit JRC

Prof. Maurice Whelan is head of the Chemical Safety and Alternative Methods Unit of the Directorate for Health, Consumers and Reference Materials of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), based in Ispra, Italy.

He also heads the JRC’s EU Reference Laboratory for alternatives to animal testing (EURL ECVAM). Maurice is the EU co-chair of the OECD Advisory Group on Molecular Screening and Toxicogenomics that is responsible for the OECD programme on Adverse Outcome Pathways, and he is a member of the Steering Committee of the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA). His publications include over 200 scientific papers and a recent book on the validation of alternative methods for toxicity testing.

He has held a number of external appointments including the 2017-2018 Francqui Chair for alternative methods at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, Belgium) and is currently visiting Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Liverpool (UK).