Amelie Ott, Environmental Sciences Manager
Amelie received a degree in Biotechnology and PhD in Environmental Engineering from Newcastle University (UK). Her PhD focussed on improving water quality monitoring and modelling in Southeast Asia, developing novel approaches to statistics and molecular biology. Amelie enjoys working at the interface of research, industry, and regulatory bodies, translating science into policy. She has experience in managing and leading international multi-stakeholder research projects on environmental chemical safety assessments. In the past, Amelie led a multi-laboratory study (ring test) to validate a new marine biodegradation screening test for persistence assessment (MaP test) as part of a European Chemical Industry Council Long-Range Research Initiative (Cefic LRI) project. This MaP test has since been accepted by OSPAR and is currently under review to become a standardised test method with the OECD. Since then, Amelie has managed an European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC) task force with experts from industry, regulatory bodies, and academia on advancing regulatory chemical persistence assessment. Prior Cosmetics Europe, Amelie worked as a parliamentary researcher for the UK Parliament, providing independent analysis of public policy issues. Amelie joined Cosmetics Europe in January 2021.
Dr Mustafa Varçin, Head of Science & Research
Dr Mustafa Varçin has a background in Pharmaceutical (MPharm) and Cosmetic Sciences (AS) with a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium). He completed his studies summa cum laude. His PhD research was part of a consortium that brought together 5 Flemish research groups and industry partners & was funded by Flemish funding agency VLAIO (formerly IWT-SBO). He is actively involved in the current state-of-the art Long Range Science Strategy programme and works together with industry experts on innovative projects & different scientific initiatives to promote NGRA & NAMs for safety assessment of cosmetic ingredients and to facilitate their regulatory use. Together with his team & industry experts, he is preparing a new global five-year science programme with focus on human health & environmental safety that will be launched soon. He was appointed as External Advisor for the development of the first U.K. postgraduate one-year MSc Cosmetic Science course at Liverpool John Moores University. He is an Honorary Academic and supports different educational & research activities. He was the Course Leader for the integrated MSc Cosmetic Science course at UAL in London, and responsible for the academic leadership and management, including design, development & delivery of curriculum. He received the UAL Student’s Union Teaching Award for ‘his excellent teaching & guidance of students during their academic development’. His teaching covered a wide range of subjects relevant to Cosmetic Science & he supervised projects from year 1 to Masters’ level. In his previous role as R&D Director, he was responsible for R&I and management of new product development projects in the beauty division of a London based company with a long history of innovations, cutting-edge concepts & influential partnerships with the beauty & wellness industry. He is an active member of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists U.K. & Ireland, CEW U.K. and British Royal Pharmaceutical Society. He joined Cosmetics Europe in September 2020
Arianna Giusti, Scientific Manager
Arianna started her academic career in Medical Biotechnology at the University of Florence (Italy) and continued her education at the University of Pavia (Italy) where she graduated with Honours in Molecular Biology and Genetics. Later she moved to Belgium where she obtained the PhD degree in Biomedical Science at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. During her PhD, which was part of the ITN Marie-Curie scholarship “MarPipe”, she worked with zebrafish-platforms with the goal of creating new procedures to assess the safety of drug candidates. She applied her knowledge about ADME/Tox to confirm the suitability of zebrafish models in the drug discovery pipeline. This was achieved both by in-depth investigations of pharmacokinetics parameters in several mammalian species and comparison based on allometric scaling procedures and via studies with ex-vivo metabolism of test compounds. All her activities were in collaboration with both the other partners of the ITN scholarship and companies external from the academic environment. Following her PhD, she worked for a few months as Research Associate before to join Cosmetics Europe in January 2021.
Sabrina Dourte, Project Management assistant
Sabrina joined the Cosmetics Europe Research and Science team in October 2011.
Rob Taalman, Science and Research Director (Retired)
Rob received a degree in Cell biology and a PhD in Human Genetics and Pediatrics from the University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands) in 1987. Prior to Cosmetics Europe, Rob worked for Litton Bionetics (US), Hazleton Biotechnologies (UK & NL) and the Dutch National Health & Environment Institute (RIVM).
In 1992 he joined Shell International in the Hague as a toxicologist and HSE advisor, moved to Shell Chemicals in London.In 1997 he was seconded to the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) where he was responsible for all Research & Science activities undertaking jointly by the European Chemical Industry. In May 2003 he returned to Shell Chemicals to take up the position of corporate HSE manager. In 2005, he relocated to Shell International in the Hague as the Group’s senior Environmental Health manager. Rob joined Cosmetics Europe in January 2010.
