July 31, 2003 — The Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering announced the membership of a nanotechnology working group Wednesday.

The group, to be chaired by Ann Dowling, a University of Cambridge mechanical engineering professor, will study the potential benefits and problems associated with nanoscience and nanotechnology and try to identify implications for health, the environment and other areas, according to a Royal Academy news release.

Other members of the group include:

• Roland Clift, director of the Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey;
• Nicole Grobert, a chemist at the Max-Planck Institute in Stuttgart, Germany who is about to begin a research fellowship at the University of Surrey;
• Deirdre Hutton, chair of the National Consumer Council;
• Ray Oliver, a senior science and technology associate at ICI plc;
• Baroness Onora O’Neill, an expert in political philosophy and bioethics at the University of Cambridge;
• John Pethica, a materials researcher based at Trinity College, Dublin;
• Nick Pidgeon, director of the Centre for Environmental Risk at the University of East Anglia;
• Sir Jonathon Porritt, chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission;
• John Ryan, a University of Oxford professor who leads the Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration on Bionanotechnology;
• Anthony Seaton, chair of the environmental and occupational medicine department at the University of Aberdeen;
• Saul Tendler, a pharmaceutical chemistry expert and molecular systems researcher at the University of Nottingham;
• Mark Welland, head of the Nanoscale Science Laboratory in the engineering department at the University of Cambridge;
• Roger Whatmore, head of the advanced materials department and director of nanotechnology at Cranfield University.