Dr Filippa Lentzos

Biography

Dr Filippa Lentzos is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Science & International Security, with a joint appointment in the Department of War Studies and in the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine. She leads several research projects and directs the MA in Science & Internal Security.

Dr Lentzos is also an Associate Senior Researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in Sweden, a Non-Resident Scholar at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) in the United States, and an Advisory Board member at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) in Austria.

Dr Lentzos is a member of the WHO Health Security Interface – Technical Advisory Group (HSI-TAG). She serves as the NGO Coordinator for the Biological Weapons Convention, and she is an advisor and mentor on the Young Women in Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Mentorship Programme. She regularly works with the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF), and the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium.

Dr Lentzos is a columnist at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and an Editor of the social science journal BioSocieties.

For more about her work see: www.filippalentzos.com

Research

• Biological weapons disarmament and non-proliferation
• Biological threats and biosecurity
• Global health security
• Security and governance of emerging life science technologies
• Responsible bioinnovation

Dr Lentzos’ research is theoretically driven, empirically informed, policy-relevant and high-profile. Wedding scientific research with current political debate on international security, it focuses on critically examining biological threats, health security, biorisk management and biological arms control. She is particularly interested in the social shaping of risk and the role of experts in the social organisation and deployment of evidence, facts and knowledge. She builds on concepts from a range of approaches, including governmentality, science & technology studies, social studies of life sciences, and risk regulation studies; and she draws on a range of methods including participant observation, interviews, documentary analysis, archival research and database searches.

Originally trained in human sciences, Dr Lentzos switched to sociology for her doctoral work, and spent the first ten years of her career at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). In 2012, she joined King’s College London as part of the team establishing the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine. In 2017, she became cross-appointed to King’s Department of War Studies.

Dr Lentzos is committed to rigorous and responsible research that contributes to addressing significant social, political and security challenges of developments in the life and health sciences. Responding to these challenges rarely involve simple or reductive answers, and her research embraces multidisciplinary perspectives and collaborative research.

Teaching

Postgraduate

• Current issues in science and security (MA)
• Science and International Security (MA/PG Dip/PG Cert)
• Bioethics and Society (MSc)
• Global Health & Social Justice (MSc)

PhD supervision: Principal supervisor, Henrietta Wilson

Further details

See Filippa's research profile