Speaker profile
Johan Nouwen
Mr Johan Nouwen was employed by DG ENTR of the European Commission in November 2004. There, he was fully involved in the preparations for REACH and setting up the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) that he joined in September 2007 as a senior scientific officer. He became team leader of the guidance team of ECHA in November 2008. In that function, he was responsible for the update process of guidance documents. Johan is one of ECHA’s Heads of Unit and is currently heading the Support, Forum and HelpNet Secretariat Unit.
His environmental career started in 1993, when he was appointed as a post-doctoral fellow at the European Chemicals Bureau (Italy) focusing on tools to manage large databases of chemicals. In 1995, Johan was hired as an expert by the Flemish Minister for Environment in order to setup a framework for selection of priority chemicals. From 1995 to 1997, he worked as Adjunct of the Director for the Public Waste Agency of Flanders (OVAM) in the framework of the new Flemish soil remediation decree. Thereafter, he worked for VITO, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research, as Project Engineer on a permanent basis. Activities included environmental auditing of chemical companies, reporting on the state of the environment and risk assessment of contaminated industrial sites.
Educated at the Universities of Limburg and Antwerp (1982-1986), Johan obtained his Ph.D. in 1992 in the field of materials science.