Petra Dickmann

Experience Keywords

biosafety; biosecurity; bioterrorism; global health security; infectious diseases; international health policy; risk communication

Research Summary

Petra is a risk communication expert with a strong background in humanities and medicine. She holds an MA in communication and completed her PhD in cultural and political sciences (HU Berlin & ETH Zurich) with an interdisciplinary research on biosecurity; she is also a medical doctor by training and did her medical doctoral research (King''s College London & University Hospital Frankfurt) in the field of CBRN threats and their impact on public perception.

Before joining LSE she worked for the Centre for Biological Security at the Robert Koch Institute (the German federal institute for infectious diseases and prevention) and at the University Hospital Frankfurt (Department for Infectious Diseases) and developed risk communication strategies for highly infectious diseases and high containment laboratories.

She has founded and is the director of a consultancy specialising in strategic risk communication offering advice to global industry, international institutions and governments. Petra is a member of the WHO virtual advisory board on Mass Gatherings and has worked in the framework of the Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI). She has contributed to a report for the Home Office on CBRN threats and worked in a EU Project on infectious diseases emergencies (ETIDE) conducting training in risk communication for clinicians and health care workers.

At LSE Health Petra is working on an EU Project on Cross Border Health Care investigation information needs of patients making choices on their healthcare; she is also part of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) group. Since summer 2011 she has been appointed as guest lecturer at the University Bonn for teaching Risk Communication and Governance.

Her vision is to set up an Academy of Risk Communication as a forum for interdisciplinary conceptual research and brainwork, teaching and exercises and as a source of cross-disciplinary discourse to provide the scientific evidence for the best health policy decision-making.

Her new book ''Plague - Pandemic - Panic'' on information needs and risk communication was published in June 2011. Her next book on Biosecurity and the role of scientific knowledge in an age of terrorism will be released in November 2011.

Petra is particularly interested in risk communication and global health security.

Languages

French [Spoken: Intermediate, Written: Intermediate]; German [Spoken: Fluent, Written: Fluent]