Dirk Stemerding is working as senior researcher Technology Assessment at the Dutch Rathenau Instituut. He is leader of the SYNENERGENE Platform 1 activities focusing on the possible futures for synthetic biology. He is the co-author of a report on the 'Politics about Life' which discusses the most important developments in synthetic biology and the topics raised by the field from a political point of view. Together with his Rathenau colleague Virgil Rerimassie he also published a study of 'SynBio discourses' in Europe.