Margaret Wilson
Risk Sciences International
MSc, BSc, BEd
Joined RSI in 2006
Personal introduction
I spent several years in post-secondary education, collecting credits in a range of subjects, and ultimately obtaining a BSc, a BEd, and an MSc in Molecular Biology. Subsequently I took distance courses in financial planning, computer programming, and epidemiology, the last to be eligible for the Population Health Risk Assessment and Management program at University of Ottawa. I consider myself fortunate to have joined Decisionalysis and later RSI, where I can indulge my curiosity in the course of researching the issues involved in each new project.
At my core, I am a health risk researcher and analyst with a broad biological background, having earned an M.Sc. in Molecular Biology and post-graduate certificates in Population Health Risk Assessment and Management, and in International Food Law and Regulation. I have worked for the McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment as part of a team studying BSE risk management, analyzing strategies in diverse countries including Argentina, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, and Switzerland (e.g. Wilson et al., 2010). I have also done extensive analysis of complex risk systems associated with foodborne microbiological and chemical hazards (e.g. Havelaar et al., 2012; Hrudey et al., 2013), and was closely involved with the early development of FDA-iRISK (Chen et al., 2013). More recently I have worked on several projects focused on prioritizing risks to improve resource allocation, some of which include the anticipated challenges associated with climate change.
Current Focus
Margaret's current focus is in evaluating the risks posed by climate change to industrial facilities, both in terms of operational risk as well as impacts to employees and to the wider community.
Works and Accomplishments
Mangen M-JJ, Bouwknegt M, Friesema IHM, Haagsma JA, Kortbeek LM, Tariq L, Wilson M, van Pelt W, and Havelaar A. 2015. Cost-of-illness and disease burden of food-related pathogens in the Netherlands, 2011. International Journal of Food Microbiology 196:84-93.
Hrudey SE, Bull RJ, Cotruvo JA, Paoli G, Wilson M. 2013. “Drinking water exposure as a proportion of total human exposure to volatile N-nitrosamines”. Risk Analysis 33(12):2179-2208.
Canady R, Lane R, Paoli G, Wilson M, Bialk H, Hermansky S, Kobielush B, Lee J-E, Llewellyn C, Scimeca J. 2013. “Determining the Applicability of Threshold of Toxicological Concern Approaches to Substances Found in Foods”. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 53(12):1239-1249.
Chen Y, Dennis SB, Hartnett E, Paoli G, Pouillot R, Ruthman T, Wilson M. 2013. “iRISK – A Comparative Risk Assessment System for Evaluating and Ranking Food-Hazard Pairs: Case Studies on Microbial Hazards”. Journal of Food Protection 76(3):376-385.
Havelaar AH, Haagsma JA, Mangen M-JJ, Kemmeren JM, Verhoef LPB, Vijgen SMC, Wilson M, Friesema IHM, Kortbeek LM, van Duynhoven THP, van Pelt W. 2012. “Disease burden of foodborne pathogens in the Netherlands, 2009”. International Journal of Food Microbiology 156:231-238.
Wilson MA, Krewski D, Tyshenko MG. 2010. “Bovine spongiform encephalopathy risk management in Australia and New Zealand”. Int. J. Risk Assessment and Management 14(1- 2):17-31.
Wilson MA, Herrera A, Krewski D, Tyshenko MG. 2010. “Bovine spongiform encephalopathy risk management in Latin America: Costa Rica as a representative country for risk management and policy”. Int. J. Risk Assessment and Management 14(1-2): 50-60.
Wilson MA, Krewski D, Tyshenko MG. 2010. “Bovine spongiform encephalopathy and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease risk management in Switzerland”. Int. J. Risk Assessment and Management 14(3-4):212-224.
Wilson MA, Darshan S, Krewski D, Tyshenko MG. 2010. “Risk management strategies for bovine spongiform encephalopathy in South America”. Int. J. Risk Assessment and Management 14(3-4):254-272.
Robb MJ, Wilson MA, Vierula PJ. 1995. “A fungal actin-related protein involved in nuclear migration”. Molecular and General Genetics 247: 583-590.
Extra-curricular
Working on projects around biodiversity and climate change has motivated me try to improve the habitat potential of our yard, mostly by increasing the number and variety of native plants.
