Irma van der Ploeg

Irma van der Ploeg holds degrees from the universities of Groningen and Maastricht in philosophy and science and technology studies; as Associate Professor she is heading the Infonomics & New Media Research Centre at Zuyd University, Maastricht/Heerlen, The Netherlands. She has published extensively on philosophical, normative, and gender aspects of medical reproductive technologies and information technologies, specifically biometric identification technologies, and has been involved as principal investigator in various projects for the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), as well as for various government departments and advice councils. She is author of “The Machine-Readable Body. Essays on Biometrics and the Informatization of the Body (Maastricht: Shaker, 2005). For Erasmus University MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, she participated in the EC/FP6 project ‘Biometric Identification Technologies and Ethics (BITE), and is currently involved in several EC/FP7 projects (a.o. HIDE (Homeland Security, Biometric Identification & Personal Detection Ethics, ACTIBIO (Unobtrusive Authentication Using Activity Related and Soft Biometrics). Her ERC-Starters Grant application ‘DigIDeas’ (Social and Ethical Aspects of Digital Identities) was recommended for funding (final decision expected in June ’08) .