Commission Membership 2024-2028
Dec 2023
ICNIRP is pleased to announce that the ICNIRP Commission 2024-2028 as of July 2024 will be composed of the following scientists:
Akimasa Hirata, Chair, Japan
Dr Akimasa Hirata received his B.E. and Ph.D. degrees in communications engineering from Osaka University, Suita, Japan. He is affiliated with the Nagoya Institute of Technology as Full Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Director of Center of Biomedical Physics and Information Technology. His research interests are in computational dosimetry for electromagnetic fields (from extremely low frequency to millimeter waves), risk management of heat-related illness, and medical application of electromagnetic fields. Dr. Hirata has a longstanding experience collaborating within international radiation protection committees such as IEEE or GLORE. Dr. Hirata won several awards including Prizes for Science and Technology in Japan such as the Japan Academy Medal. Akimasa Hirata joined the ICNIRP Main Commission in May 2016.
Ken Karipidis, Vice-Chair, Australia
Dr Ken Karipidis is originally a physics graduate from La Trobe University and later completed a PhD in epidemiology at Monash University. He is currently working as a scientist at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) as Assistant Director of Health Impact Assessment. He has been a member of various national standard setting committees including the working groups developing the Australian radiofrequency exposure standard and extremely low frequency exposure guidelines. Ken has a number of eminent appointments including being an adjunct Associate Professor at Swinburne University of Technology, an advisory board member at the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research and is an associate investigator at the Centre for Population Health Research on Electromagnetic Energy. Ken joined ICNIRP in August 2015, as an SEG member and joined the Main Commission in May 2020.
Young Hwan Ahn, Republic of Korea
Dr Young Hwan Ahn is a Full-time faculty Neurosurgeon at the Department of Neurosurgery, Director of the Parkinson Center at the Ajou University Hospital and Director of the RF-EMF Research Lab at the Ajou University School of Medicine. Dr Ahn holds a PhD in Medicine from the Chung Ang University in Seoul, Korea. He has a broad experience collaborating in national and international EMF scientific committees and projects groups such as the Japan-Korea Collaborative NTP validation Animal Study on Carcinogenicity of Mobile Phone Radiofrequency Radiation.
Nigel Cridland, United Kingdom
Dr Nigel Cridland has worked in the field of non-ionising radiations for 35 years, having started research with ultraviolet radiation in the 1980s. He obtained his DPhil in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, where he also undertook postdoctoral research. He is employed at the Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, part of Public Health England. His research interests in the field of non-ionising radiations are focussed in particular on ultraviolet radiation and electromagnetic fields including occupational exposures to optical radiations and electromagnetic fields with a focus on ‘at risk’ employees. Nigel Cridland joined the ICNIRP Main Commission in May 2020.
Frank de Vocht, United Kingdom
Dr Frank de Vocht is a Professor in Epidemiology and Public Health, and joined the Centre for Public Health, which is part of Population Health Sciences at Bristol Medical School, United Kingdom in 2014. He obtained his PhD from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He has a longstanding experience collaborating within international and national organizations in the field of epidemiology, radiation protection and environmental health hazards. He has over 170 peer-review publications broadly covering the areas of public health, radiation epidemiology, and environmental and occupational epidemiology.
Anke Huss, The Netherlands
Dr Anke Huss is an associate professor at the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS) at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on environmental and occupational exposure assessment to environmental factors including electromagnetic fields and their health effects. In particular, she is involved in several case-control and cohort studies evaluating neurodevelopment and sleep in children in the ABCD cohort (Amsterdam Born Children and their Development) and GERoNiMO project, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s or ALS in the NOCCA (Nordic Occupational Cancer Study) and SNC (Swiss National Cohort) studies and on electromagnetic hypersensitivity. She is involved in numerous international collaborations projects related to EMF and epidemiology. Anke Huss joined the ICNIRP Main Commission in May 2020.
Ilko Ilev, United States of America
Dr Ilko Ilev has over 30 years of extensive experience and distinguished accomplishments in leading science research institutions in the USA, Europe and Japan in the areas of biophotonics, laser medicine, biomedical optics, nanobiophotonics, and laser and optical radiation safety (LORS) evaluation of biophotonics technologies and medical devices. Since 1998, he has been with the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) at U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) serving as an FDA Senior Biomedical Research Service (SBRS) Scientist and chairing the FDA LORS Research Program. For his outstanding contributions to the field of laser and biomedical optics, he has been elected as a Fellow of major scientific societies: IEEE; OPTICA; SPIE (International Society for Optics and Photonics); AIMBE (American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering); and ASLMS (American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery).
Jens Kuhne, Germany
Dr Jens Kuhne is a physicist with a special interest in biophysics. In 2016, he received his doctoral degree (Dr. rer. nat.) from Ruhr-University Bochum. In 2017 he joined the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection in the working group “electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields and ultrasound” where he mainly focuses on exposure and dosimetry. He is now serving as a Co-Director at the Competence Center EMF („Research and Evaluation“) at the Federal Office for Radiation Protection in Germany. Jens Kuhne was appointed a Member of the ICNIRP Scientific Expert Group (SEG) in 2020.
Ilkka Laakso, Finland
Dr Ilkka Laakso is Professor of Electromagnetics in Health Technologies at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on theoretical and computational bioelectromagnetics at both extremely low and radio frequencies. Special interests are electromagnetic dosimetry for human exposure assessment and biomedical applications of electromagnetic fields. He received the Master degree in electromagnetics and circuit theory from Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, in 2007, and the PhD in electromagnetics from Aalto University, Finland in 2011. He subsequently spent four years in Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan, as a a postdoctoral researcher, Research Assistant Professor, and Research Associate Professor. He is the secretary of Subcommittee of EMF Dosimetry Modeling of IEEE International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety and a working group chairman. Ilkka Laakso joined the ICNIRP Scientific Expert Group (SEG) in 2016.
Isabelle Lagroye, France
Dr Isabelle Lagroye holds a PhD in Life Sciences from the Bordeaux II University, France. After a post-doctoral position at the Radiation Oncology Center in Dr Roti-Roti's laboratory (Saint-Louis, MO, USA), she has carried out research work at the Bioelectronics group of the IMS laboratory-UMR5218, University of Bordeaux since 1999. She is a Director of studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), France. Her research deals mainly with the toxicological effects of non-invasive electromagnetic fields, investigating genotoxicity, apoptosis, and protein expression in rodents' brain and skin, and cell cultures exposed to mobile communication signals from 2G to 5G. She was a member of the ICNIRP Standing Committee on Biology from 2009 until 2012 and was a Member of the ICNIRP Scientific Expert Group (SEG) from 2013 until 2021.
Alberto Modenese, Italy
Dr Alberto Modenese works as Professor of Occupational Medicine and Coordinator of the Post-graduate Specialization School in Occupational Medicine at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UniMoRe). He is an Occupational Physician, based at the UniMoRe Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences in Modena (Italy). He is also the Secretary of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) Scientific Committee "Radiation and Work" and he is a Board Member of the Italian Medical Radioprotection Association (i.e. Associazione Italiana di Radioprotezione Medica, AIRM). He holds a PhD in Clinical and Experimental Medicine and his research interests are in particular the evaluation and prevention of health risks related to occupational exposure to ionizing and non-ionizing radiations (EMF and optical radiation), occupational epidemiology and systematic reviews in OSH: he published more than 120 scientific contributions in the NIR area (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0850-5615).
Gunnhild Oftedal, Norway
Dr Gunnhild Oftedal obtained a degree in biophysics and PhD in psycho-physio acoustics, with a focus on effects on hearing, in 1985 at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She has been working as Research Co-ordinator at the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, NTNU. From the early 1990s, she has been involved in research on health effects of EMF in the ELF and the RF ranges, mainly with experimental human studies and observational studies. Her focus has been on symptoms attributed to electromagnetic fields, but she also has been involved in studies on pregnancy outcomes in populations exposed to RF fields. She has collaborated within different international organisations in the field of non-ionizing radiation and participates in the work of WHO on the health risk assessment on RF fields. She joined the ICNIRP Main Commission in 2016.
The interdisciplinary team of highly recognized experts will start its term for the next 4 years immediately after the IRPA Congress, 7-12 July 2024.
Departing members
After many years of highly focussed commitment to the work of ICNIRP, Rodney Croft, Eric van Rongen, Carmela Marino and Soichi Watanabe (12 years), and Guglielmo d’Inzeo, Sharon Miller and Martin Röösli (8 years) will be leaving the Commission. ICNIRP is very thankful for their outstanding contribution and high dedication to the Commission's radiation protection activities.
Background information
Every four years ICNIRP elects its Commission members. Following a call for nominations extended to the IRPA national Societies, the IRPA Executive Council, and to national public radiation protection authorities and international radiation protection organizations, the election took place at the ICNIRP Annual General Meeting, 20-22 November 2023, Basel, Switzerland.