Posts

Showing posts from February, 2019

Cassidy Nelson - Biosecurity: Global Catastrophic Biological Risk Mitiga...

Global Catastrophic Biological Risks (GCBRs) are biological events with the potential to alter humanity's long-term trajectory or result in human extinction. Cassidy will argue that while the relative probability of a GCBR event may be low, reducing biological threats is arguably very cost-effective given the potential long-term consequences. She will also discuss how recent advancements in synthetic biology and genetic engineering have made anthropogenic pandemics an increasingly real possibility, making biosecurity an effective altruism cause area worthy of close consideration. Speaker Bio: Cassidy is an Affiliate Scholar at the Future of Humanity Institute. Previously she was a medical doctor working in communicable disease public health for the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services and human biosecurity for the Australian Government. She has previously worked in hospital and laboratory medicine around Australia and volunteered with the Waterwell