Dr. Harris is a senior researcher in the Division of Epidemiology at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and an adjunct Professor in Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Southern Denmark. Since 2000 she has advised the National Institute on Aging, NIH, USA on developing research directions that integrate genetics and genomics within a broad behavioural and social research programme. Her current research uses the twin design to study genetic, epigenetic and environmental influences on a range of health and behavioral outcomes. In 2013 she won the James Shields Award for outstanding research in behavioral genetics, and she was recently elected President of the International Society of Twin Studies. She has broad commitment to the wider scientific community and serves on several expert panels, boards, steering groups, scientific advisory committees and editorial boards. Jennifer led the FP6 project Promoting Harmonization of Epidemiological Biobanks in Europe (PHOEBE), and currently leads the strategic integration work in BioSHaRE (Biobank Standardization and Harmonization for Research Excellence in the EU). She was a scientific partner in FP7 project European Network of Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology (ENGAGE) where she led the work package on Ethics and Society and she is involved in several other initiatives where issues surrounding international data sharing figure prominently.
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (www.fhi.no) is placed directly under the Ministry of Health and Care Services, alongside the Norwegian Directorate of Health, the Norwegian Board of Health Supervision and the Norwegian Medicines Agency. It works to continually improve national efforts in outbreak preparedness, data gathering, and laboratory-based research and monitoring for public health applications. The NIPH has responsibility for several nationwide health registries and large cohort studies, including the Norwegian Twin Registry (NTR), and also hosts the Norwegian Network of Human Research Biobanks and Health Studies, which includes two major biobank facilities as national services. The NIPH collaborates with the WHO, EU, EEA, health authorities and other institutions in low- and middle-income countries on global health issues.