Annegaaike Leopold

Annegaaike Leopold (MSc) is a Eurotox-registered regulatory ecotoxicologist, working as a consultant. In addition she is an Adjunct Professor at IRES, UBC,  in the field of Science for Policy. At the EGESTA lab of IRES she is currently co-supervisor of 3 MSc students. Her own research interest focuses on how to make plurality in science work better for the purpose of robust and fair policy decisions in the field of environmental ecotoxicology. 

Annegaaike has 32 years of experience in the global regulatory environmental sciences of which she spent 26 years in the contract laboratory business. She worked as project coordinator of numerous international, multidisciplinary, regulatory projects, focusing on avian and aquatic (endocrine) ecotoxicology and environmental fate.  Subsequently she became executive manager responsible for global strategic business development for the US based contract laboratory Wildlife International Ltd (now Eurofins).  Annegaaike has authored several hundred reports in the field of aquatic and terrestrial ecotoxicology, avian toxicology, has several publications in these fields in SCI journals and has contributed to OECD guideline development in these fields.

Since 2015 Annegaaike has worked in her independent consultancy Calidris Environment BV, based in The Netherlands, in the area of regulatory (endocrine) ecotoxicology and the field of science for policy. In 2019 she joined the EGESTA lab at IRES and works with Professor Gunilla Oberg and Masters and PhD students on practical and pragmatic research on the use and utility of science for policy, through transdisciplinary collaborations. Since joining the EGESTA lab, Annegaaike has worked as Co-PI in a research project of Bronwyn McIlroy, investigating scientific controversies surrounding evaluation of endocrine disrupting substances, which has resulted in two publications. She has also co-authored a paper with Gunilla Oberg on how to improve the role of review papers in research on contaminants of emerging concern. Currently she is working with masters student Georgia May who is researching the impact of socio-cultural factors on how experts weigh the relevance of evidence when evaluating chemical risk. In addition, she is working with masters student Diana Bedolla López who is researching how to improve science based risk communication through the organisation of a workshop among Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Scientists. The third student Jack Durant, is studying uncertainty and epistemic communities in endocrine disruptor expert deliberations.

Annegaaike is Past President of the SETAC Europe and she has a strong global network across sectors (Industry/government, academia and NGO’s).