John Pearson received a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics in 2009. He previously studied political philosophy at KU Leuven and the University of Manchester. John also holds a postgraduate degree in Business Administration from KU Leuven.
From 2018 to 2023, John worked at the Free University of Brussels as secretary of the Ethics Committee Dual Use, Military Use and Misuse. Before that, he was involved in European projects on ‘Responsible Research and Innovation’ (RRI or Socially Responsible Innovation) and human rights. He has also been an ethics expert for the European Horizon Framework Programmes since 2016.
Since 2023, John has been working as a researcher at the Peace Institute. He researches export controls on dual-use items and military products within the cluster ‘dual-use goods’.