Dr Antonella di Trapani

Antonella di Trapani is leading the nuclear education activities at the NEA. Before joining the OECD NEA in July 2018, she was Team Leader for Science Policy Advice within the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism. Prior to that, she has held several positions as Programme Manager and Head of International Cooperation, at the G20 Wheat Initiative, European Commission European Research Council and European Science Foundation, managing large scale collaborative projects, capacity building networks and the largest grants in Europe. In addition,  she also worked for the private sector as  Research Scientist in Johnson Matthey Technology Centre. 
She was awarded two EC Marie Curie Fellowships to carry out her PhD and PostDoc, and she was Chair of the Marie Curie Fellows Association, the largest Fellows’ network in Europe. She also founded and chaired the Women in Science Working Group. She is also co-founder and former Vice-Chair of the Gender in Science for Mobile Scientists of the Marie Curie Alumni Association.

She is an Italian national and holds a MSc in Chemistry from the University of Palermo (Italy) during which she was awarded an  Erasmus Fellowship at University College London (UK), a PhD in Chemistry and a PostGraduate Diploma in Quality Improvement from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), a MSc in Science Communication and Journalism from University of Ferrara (Italy), and a PostGraduate Diploma in International Development from London School of Economics and Social Sciences (UK).

Mrs Kathryn Obisesan

In January 2021 Kathryn Obisesan joined the Division of Nuclear Science to lead the work on the Global Forum for Nuclear, Education, Science, and Technology and to help co-ordinate its work with the NEST Framework. In May 2020 she received a bachelor’s degree in government and politics concentrated in International Relations and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Maryland – College Park (UMD), United States.

As a UMD College Park International Studies Scholar, Kathryn studied International Relations and Multilateral Diplomacy in Geneva Switzerland at the School for International Training (SIT). While in Geneva, she conducted independent research on environmental degradation and migration in conflict areas to formulate a paper on circumstances in which climate change conflate with irregular migration. Before joining the NEA, as a UMD Global Fellow, she did two internships at the United States Department of Energy. The first was in the Nuclear Energy Office in Advanced Fuel Technology and the second at the National Nuclear Security Administration focused on International Programs within Defense Programs.

Mrs Gina Abdelsalam

Gina joined the NEA in June 2021 in the division of Nuclear Technology Development and Economics to contribute to the Nuclear Innovation 2050 initiative and provide Technical Secretariat support to the Generation IV International Forum (GIF). Within GIF, she coordinates the work of the Proliferation Resistance & Physical Protection Working Group (PRPPWG), the Education & Training Working Group (ETWG) and the Economics Modeling Working Group (EMWG).

Gina is a French and Egyptian national and a former nuclear research engineer. She holds an MSc in Energy and Nuclear Engineering from the French Engineering school PHELMA - Grenoble INP and graduated in June 2021 with a Master of Business Administration at the HEC Paris business school.

Prior to her MBA Gina worked for five years at EDF where she started as a nuclear research engineer before taking the lead of a common project between EDF and FRAMATOME, a project launched a few months after the acquisition of FRAMATOME by EDF and aiming at developing a new state-of-the-art neutronic calculation chain for nuclear reactors.

Mrs Florence Maher

Florence is a Junior Social Scientist at the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, where she works to advance international cooperation on the human aspects of nuclear safety and improve gender balance in nuclear energy. 

Prior to her current position, she was a 2018-2020 Rotary Peace Fellow at the International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan, researching multi-stakeholder dialogue on policy processes.  From 2011-2018 she was a career foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State, with assignments in Mexico, Italy, Honduras, and Washington, DC.  She holds a Master’s degree in public policy and social research from the International Christian University and Bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Howard University in Washington, DC.

Mrs Risa Hayashi

Risa Hayashi joined the Division of Nuclear Science as staff on loan from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in September 2021. Her work focuses on the Global Forum for Nuclear, Education, Science, and Technology and the Nuclear Education, Skills and Technology Framework(NEST).

Upon termination of her mission at the NEA in August 2022, she will go back to Japan.

Risa graduated from Seikei university before joining MEXT and the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), where she worked on nuclear regulation, nanotechnology, and other related topics. 

Mrs Solene Petitcol

Solene joined the NEA in October 2021 as an intern at the Division of Nuclear Science to support the Nuclear Education, Skills and Technology (NEST) Framework and the NEA Global Forum on Nuclear Education, Science, Technology and Policy.

Prior to joining the NEA, she got introduced to the nuclear field by studying the military implications of nuclear in international security with a focus on the Asia Pacific region at Waseda University, Japan. She also volunteered for half a year at Peace Boat, a Japanese NGO working on promoting the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through the testimonies of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings survivors.

Solene is a French national holding a trilingual B.B.A. in management and international affairs from HEC Montreal, Canada in 2020 and is currently pursuing an M.A in international relations at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, and is expected to graduate in September 2022. Her research thesis focuses on the Japan-South Korea relationship between 2018 and 2020.