Van Asselt, MBA

Prof.dr.ir. Marjolein B.A. van Asselt (1969) is holding the Risk Governance chair at Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

Marjolein B.A. van Asselt is member of the Scientific Council for Government Policy (Wetenschappelijke Raad voor het Regeringsbeleid - WRR) for the period 2008-2012. She is re-appointed for a second term (2013-2017).

From 2005-2010, Marjolein B.A. van Asselt was member of the Young Academy (De Jonge Akademie - DJA) of the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences (KNAW).

Prof.dr.ir. Marjolein B.A. van Asselt (1969) is holding the Risk Governance chair at Maastricht University. She gave her inaugural speech (which can be downloaded below) on October 26, 2007.

Marjolein has worked as an interdisciplinary researcher at the Dutch Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) (1993-1996), the Swiss Federal Institute EAWAG (1996- 1997) and she co-founded the International Centre for Integrative Studies (ICIS), Maastricht Univeristy (1997-2002). Marjolein enjoyed visiting scholarships at Oxford University (2005) and the King's Centre for Risk Management in London (2007). 

Her research interest and expertise is in the interplay between science, society and politics. She has specialised in the related topics dealing with uncertainty, risk governance, the regulation of innovation and foresight. 

Her PhD "Perspectives on uncertainty and risk" addressed the issue of uncertainty in decision-support. In 2001, she got a career grant from the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO) for a 5 year research program. Marjolein has (co-)authored over 40 journal articles, 20 book chapters, numerous research reports and some newspaper articles. Key journal articles involve her paper "Risk governance" with Ortwin Renn (Journal of Risk Research), the two van Asselt & Vos papers in the Journal of Risk Research ("The precautionary principle and the uncertainty paradox" and "Wrestling with uncertain risks"), the 2005 article "The complex significance of uncertainty in a risk area" and the various co-authored papers in Futures. Her most recent book is "Foresight in action: Developing policy-oriented scenarios" (Earthscan, 2010). Forthcoming is the edited book "Balancing between trade and risk: Integrating legal and social science perspectives" (with Esther Versluis and Ellen Vos) (Earthscan).