Alessandro Allegra is a 2018-2019 Visiting Research Fellow and a Fulbright-Schuman Scholar with the Program on Science, Technology and Society at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is a doctoral candidate in STS at University College London (UCL), working on the role of cultural differences in the provision of scientific advice to policymaking in the European Union. 

Through the case study of the regulation of food products derived from cloned animals, Alessandro’s research explores how the plurality of European values is reflected in EU-level common decision-making processes. His research combines analytical approaches from STS and the philosophy of science with practical experience of working at the science-policy interface.

Alessandro has professional experience in UK, EU, and international science policy, having worked in policy roles at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the Royal Society of London, the UK Royal Society of Biology, and the European Commission. He has collaborated with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the UK Foreign Office to produce a report on scientific advice in transnational crises, and collaborates regularly with the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA). He also serves a Secretary of the Association of Italian Scientists in the UK (AISUK).

Alessandro received a BA in Philosophy from the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, during which he spent a year as exchange student at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He subsequently received a MSc in Philosophy of Science from the London School of Economics, where he focused on the history and philosophy of biology.