Kirsten Rasmussen, MSc Chem. Eng. from the Technical University of Denmark. After developing liquid crystalline polymers for 2 years at Istituto Donegani, Novara, Italy, she has since 1988 worked for the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre on a wide range of the chemicals legislation and risk assessment e.g. as co-ordinator 1998-2007 of the JRC support to the new (1998) Biocides Directive, defining the processes for the review and assessment of active substances, and chairing the Biocides technical evaluation committee. She was detached to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) 2007/2008 to start-up its Committee on Risk Assessment. In 2008, she re-joined the JRC, in the group studying the scientific/regulatory aspects of nanomaterials and the interfaces to legislation, in co-operation with e.g. the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials, and nanotechnology standardisation in ISO and CEN.