Dr Peteris Zilgalvis

Pēteris Zilgalvis  is the EU Visiting Fellow for 2013-14. He is the Head of Unit for eHealth and Well Being in DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CNECT) in the European Commission. Prior to that, he was Head of Unit, ICT for Health, Directorate – ICT addressing Social Challenges, Information Society and Media Directorate General (INFSO). Earlier, he was Head of the Unit, Infectious Diseases and Public Health in the Health Research Directorate. From 2005 until 2010, he was Head of the Governance and Ethics Unit, Directorate Science, Economy and Society at DG Research, European Commission, managing research in the social sciences and humanities, as well as the ethical review for all Commission-funded research. From 1997 to 2005, he was Deputy Head of the Bioethics Department of the Council of Europe, in its Directorate General of Legal Affairs, and Co-Secretary of the Intergovernmental Steering Committee on Bioethics (CDBI). In addition, he has held various positions in the Latvian civil service (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Environment). He was Senior Environmental Law Advisor to the World Bank/Russian Federation Environmental Management Project and was Regional Environmental Specialist for the Baltic Countries at the World Bank. P. Zilgalvis studied political science (cum laude) at the University of California, Los Angeles. At the Law Centre of the University of Southern California he obtained his JD (Doctor of Jurisprudence) and received the Darling Foundation academic scholarship. He completed the High Potentials Leadership Program at Harvard Business School. He is a member of the California State Bar. He has published over 30 publications on bioethics, economics, European and environmental law in English, Latvian, and French.