International multi-disciplinary consultancy, WYG is pleased to announce a number of recent appointments and promotions within its Planning & Environment team based at various locations around the UK.

Matthew Allsopp, Planning & Design Assistant;  Max Plotnek, Principal Planner;  Catherine Phillips, Senior Planner;  Graeme Smart, Principal Ecologist and Martin Brown, Principal Archaeologist, all bring years of experience and significant knowledge to the award-winning consultancy.

Dr David Lovell has been appointed as the new chair of the Committee on Mutagenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COM) for 3 years with effect from 1 November 2012.

The offer of appointment will be for a time commitment of 3 COM meetings per year, plus a requirement to be an ‘ex-officio’ member on the Committee on Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COC) and attend three COC meetings per year.

InterAct, an Acteon company, has broadened its environmental capabilities and services with the recent appointments of Ms. Cynda Maxon and Mr. F. Charles (Skip) Newton, who join the company as Sr. Project Director and Senior Scientist, respectively. This is part of a strategic move to augment services, draw on global experience, and forge stronger collaborative links with other Acteon group companies. These appointments will increase InterAct’s ability to conduct a complete range of environmental studies required by clients to establish conditions prior to exploration and development, and to assess potential impacts from operations and activities, including seismic, drilling, construction, production, and decommissioning.

Maxon has more than 20 years of experience as an environmental chemist, ecological risk assessor, and project manager specializing in coastal and offshore marine environments. She has performed environmental baseline, post-drilling, impact, and decommissioning studies in the USA, mid-Pacific, Caspian and Mediterranean seas, East and West Africa, eastern Russia, and Indonesia. She continues to deliver customized environmental training to several US major oil companies covering a wide-range of topics that apply to global activities and operations.

Sofie Pelsmakers, a PhD student at UCL Energy Institute has received a commendation in the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) President’s Awards for her book The Environmental Design Pocketbook. The book, published in March 2012, was nominated within the Outstanding Practice-located Research category.

Professor Jane Dacre (UCL Medical School) has become a category award winner in the prestigious Woman of Achievement Awards ceremonies. She won the Medicine/Healthcare category and will now go head to head against other category winners in a ceremony on 23 November.