Preliminary Program for Gordon Research Conference on "Governing Emerging Technologies":
CNS-ASU Director Dave Guston is co-chairing the 2008 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Science and Technology,
along with Rachel Ankeny of the University of Adelaide in Australia. The conference will be held in Big Sky,
Montana August 17-21, 2008. Its theme is the governance of emerging technologies.
Other conference information is also available.
August 2008 Gordon Research Conference on Governing Emerging Technologies
Preliminary Conference Program
About the Speakers and Discussion Leaders
Conference Location
GRC Website
CNS-ASU Director Dave Guston is co-chairing the 2008 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Science and Technology, along with Rachel Ankeny of the University of Adelaide in Australia. The conference will be held in Big Sky, Montana August 17-21, 2008. Its theme is the governance of emerging technologies, including nanotechnologies, whose potential global consequences are apparent only in anticipation, and whose manifestations are still being shaped by local, domestic and international institutions. This GRC will examine four main issues:
- anticipation of the kinds of transformations these technologies will create;
- engagement with various publics over the values that underpin work on these technologies;
- integration of social science and humanist inquiry with scientific and technical work in these areas; and
- implementation of a variety of governance mechanisms, from laissez faire to highly interventionist approaches.
About Gordon Research Conferences
GRCs were initiated in the 1920s to promote the free exchange of ideas among scientists during a full week of intense discussion and examination of the most advanced aspects of their field. These conferences provide a valuable means of disseminating information and ideas in a way that cannot be achieved through the usual channels of publications and presentations at large scientific meetings.
The GRC on Science and Technology Policy was begun in 2000 and is held every two years. It seeks to combine the latest in ongoing policy research and analysis with insights into the practice of decision-making from local to national levels of government. Participants range from graduate students who report on their activities at poster sessions (which are a major activity at GRCs), to individuals in high positions in states, academic, industry, and the federal government. Insights derived from discussions between practitioners and researchers at this GRC have the potential to improve the policy process at all levels of government and industry, as well as strengthen scholarly research in the field.
There are two steps to attending a GRC, application and registration. First, you must apply to attend a conference, and then be accepted by the Chair of that meeting. Once you have been accepted by the Conference Chair, you will receive an email with a link to the GRC's Online Registration website, where you may complete the registration process. The online registration site can only be accessed through the email link you receive from the Conference Chair.
2008 Gordon Research Conference Program
(Updated 3/13/08)
Sunday, August 17
Opening Session: Governing Emerging Technologies
Welcome and Overview: David Guston and Rachel Ankeny
Speaker 1.1: Christina Smolke, "Overview: Synthetic Biology"
Speaker 1.2: Michael Chorost, "Overview: Neuro Technologies"
Speaker 1.3: Vicki Colvin, "Overview: Nanotechnologies"
Monday, August 18
Integrations: Social Science, Humanities and Emerging Technologies
Discussion Leader 6: Susan Dodds
Speaker 6.1: Paul Rabinow, "The Human Practices of Synthetic Biology"
Speaker 6.2: Rosalyn Berne, "Science Fiction and Nano-Scientists’ Moral Imagination"
Speaker 6.3: Michele Garfinkel, "Integration of Policy Analysis in Private Sector Research"
Speaker 6.4: George Khushf, "Integrating Ethics with Neural Implant Research"
Emerging Enterprises
Discussion Leader 3: To Be Invited
Speaker 3.1: "The Emerging Nano Industries"
Speaker 3.2: Zack Lynch, "The Emerging Neuro Industries"
Speaker 3.3: Mark Nance, "The Emerging Synthetic Biology Industry and Biosecurity"
Tuesday, August 19
Engagements: Publics and Emerging Technologies
Discussion Leader 4: Barbara Harthorn
Speaker 4.1: Patrick W. Hamlett, "The National Citizens’ Technology Forum on Nanotechnology"
Speaker 4.2: Larry Bell, "Engaging Citizens: New Roles for Science Museums"
Speaker 4.3: Rinie van Est, "European Publics and Synthetic Biology"
Speaker 4.4: Scott Vrecko, "Neurotechnologies & Public Engagement in Europe"
Speaker 4.5: To be invited, "Engagement in the Developing World"
Equity, Development, and Emerging Technologies
Discussion Leader 5: Rex Raimond
Speaker 5.1: Noela Invernizzi, "Nanotechnology and Development in Latin America" (confirmed)
Speaker 5.2: Gregor Wolbring, "Able-ism and Emerging Technologies"
Speaker 5.3: Geri Augusto, "Emerging Technologies in an Emerging Nation"
Wednesday, August 20
Anticipations: Futures of Emerging Technologies
Discussion Leader 2: Justin Hodiak
Speaker 2.1: Ann Johnson, "Uses of History for Anticipating Emerging Technologies"
Speaker 2.2: Angela Wilkinson, "Scenarios for Emerging Technologies"
Speaker 2.3: Mark Buenger, "Market Research in Emerging Technologies"
Speaker 2.4: Natasha Schull, "Futures of Neuro Technologies"
Speaker 2.5: To be invited
Implementation of Governance Activities, I: Dual Use & Military
Discussion Leader 7: Ruth David
Speaker 7.1: Juergen Altmann, "Preventive Arms Control and Nanotechnology"
Speaker 7.2: Gerald Epstein, "Emerging Technologies, Dual Use Technologies"
Speaker 7.3: Kathleen Vogel, "How Easy is Easy with Emerging Technologies?"
Thursday, August 21
Implementation of Governance Activities, II: Civilian
Discussion Leader 8: David Rejeski
Speaker 8.1: Pam Samuelson, "Patenting Issues in Synthetic Biology"
Speaker 8.2: Kristen Kulinowski, "International Governance of Nanotechnology Risks"
Speaker 8.3: Pat Mooney, "Controlling Synthetic Biology"
Speaker 8.4: Adam Segal, "Globalization, Techno-Nationalism and Cosmopolitan Innovation"
Speaker 8.5: To be invited
Concluding Panel: Wrap-Up
Discussion Leader 9: Anne-Marie Mazza
Speaker 9.1: Roger Pielke, Jr.
Speaker 9.2: Robert Cook-Deegan
Speaker 9.3: To be invited
About Gordon Research Conferences
About the Speakers and Discussion Leaders
Jurgen Altmann, a physicist and peace researcher at the University of Dortmund, is co-founder of the German Research Association for Science, Disarmament, and International Security and a deputy speaker of the Committee on Physics and Disarmament of the German Physical Society. His research focuses on the prospective assessment of new military technologies and the analysis of preventative arms control measures.
Geri Augusto is Adjunct Assistant Professor in Public Policy at the Center for Public Policy & American Institutions at Brown University. Her current research focuses on socio-cultural relations between contemporary indigenous African therapeutic knowledge and the biosciences, local and global sciences, and historically black and historically white universities. She is an Honorary Research Associate at the Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, and an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Caribbean Thought, University of the West Indies.
Larry Bell is Senior Vice President for Exhibits and Programs at the Museum of Science in Boston, where he is also principal investigator of the NSF-funded Nano-scale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net).
Rosalyn Berne is Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Virginia. She received a CAREER award from NSF, which culminated in the publication of Nanotalk: Conversations with Scientists and Engineers about Ethics, Meaning, and Belief in the Development of Nanotechnology (Erlbaum, 2005). Her next book project, Nanotechnology and the Moral Imagination, focuses on the role of science fiction as a source for deliberations about the future.
Mark Bünger is a Senior Analyst at Lux Research, an independent industry research firm that specializes in emerging, science-based technologies. Prior to his time at Lux, he was Principal Analyst at Forrester Research and International Engagement Manager at the European consultancy, Icon Medialab.
Michael Chorost received his Ph.D. in humanities computing at UT-Austin. As the recipient of a Clarion CII cochlear implant in 2001, he has considerable direct experience with neurotechnology. He is the author of Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human (2005), which won the PEN/USA award for Creative Nonfiction in 2006. He is now working on a book about neurotechnology's prospects for exploring communication and consciousness.
Vicki Colvin is Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Rice University where she also is Director of the NSF-funded Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN). She received her Bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics from Stanford University, and her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
Robert Cook-Deegan is Director of the Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy at Duke University’s Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy. Prior to his time at Duke, he worked at the Institute of Medicine, the National Center for Human Genome Research, the US Congressional Biomedical Ethics Advisory Committee, and the Office of Technology Assessment.
Ruth David is President and Chief Executive Officer of Analytic Services, Inc., an independent, not-for-profit, public service research institution that provides research support on national and trans-national issues, particularly regarding security. She is the former Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the Central Intelligence Agency.
Susan Dodds is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wollongong, where she is also Head of the School of English Literatures, Philosophy, and Languages. She is Chief Investigator on the Australia Research Council (ARC) grant "Big-Picture Bioethics: Policy Making in a Liberal Democracy" and on the ARC-funded Center of Excellence for Electromaterials Science.
Gerald Epstein is a senior fellow for science and security in the Homeland Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also an adjunct professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
Rinie van Est is Coordinator of the Technology Assessment department at the Rathenau Institute, the Netherlands’ parliamentary technology assessment office. His expertise includes public engagement and participatory methods and has done extensive work for the Rathenau Institute in emerging technologies.
Michele Garfinkel is a policy analyst at the J. Craig Venter Institute, where her research focuses on technology policy issues emerging from new discoveries in genomics. She has a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Washington and an MA in Science, Technology, and Public Policy from the George Washington University, where she was a Shapiro Fellow in International Affairs.
Patrick W. Hamlett is Associate Professor of Multidisciplinary Studies at North Carolina State University. His work has focused on methods for public deliberation on and participation in science and technology policy decision-making. In March 2008, he is organizing the first National Citizens’ Technology Forum in the United States on the topic of nanotechnology.
Barbara Harthorn is Professor of Women’s Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she is co-director of the NSF Center for Nanotechnology in Society at UCSB. Her research focuses on studies risk perception and social response to the newly developing field of nanotechnology.
Justin Hodiak is a contractor from Booz Allen Hamilton who provides on-site consulting to the Microsystems Technology Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the US Department of Defense. She assists program managers with developing new research initiatives in electronics, photonics and nanotechnologies and the Office Director with strategic priorities. Her work focuses on anticipating future needs and projecting the impact of the technologies.
Noela Invernizzi is an anthropologist who holds a PhD in Science and Technology Policy. She works at the Education Faculty of the Federal University of Parana, Brazil. She is currently researching on the social and economic implications of nanotechnologies for developing countries, focusing on inequality, poverty and development issues.
Ann Johnson is a historian of science, with a joint appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Departments of History and Philosophy at the University of South Carolina, where she is also affiliated with the nanoSTS group. Her research has focused on engineering communities in the 19th and 20th centuries, and she is currently researching a project on roadmapping and the history of technological forecasting.
George Khushf is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina, where is Humanities Director at the Center for Bioethics. A former managing editor of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, his research focuses on administrative and organizational ethics in emerging technologies.
Kristen Kulinowski is Executive Director of the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology at Rice University and Director of the International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON). She is also a faculty fellow of the Department of Chemistry at Rice.
Zack Lynch is the Executive Director of Neurotechnology Industry Organization and the managing director of NeuroInsights. He serves on the advisory boards of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics, the Center for Neuroeconomic Studies and SocialText, a social software company. He received a master’s degree in economic geography and double B.S. in evolutionary biology and environmental science, all from UCLA.
Anne-Marie Mazza is the current and founding director of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science, Technology, and Law (CSTL) and was just recently named the director of the National Academies Science and Technology Graduate Policy Fellowship Program. During 1999-2000, she served as a senior policy analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Pat Mooney is Executive Director of the ETC Group. The author or co-author of several books on the politics of biotechnology and biodiversity, he received The Right Livelihood Award (the "Alternative Nobel Prize") in the Swedish Parliament in 1985. In 1998 Mooney received the Pearson Peace Prize from Canada's Governor General. He also received the American "Giraffe Award" given to people "who stick their necks out." Mooney has no university training but is widely regarded as an authority on agricultural biodiversity and new technology issues.
Mark Nance is chief counsel for medical diagnostics at GE Healthcare in Princeton, NJ. He is a member of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, established to advise the federal government on minimizing the threat of the misuse of advanced biological knowledge.
Roger Pielke, Jr. is a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he is the director emeritus of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research. He is the vice-chair of the 2008 GRC on S&T Policy and chair of its poster committee.
Paul Rabinow is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. He heads the "human practices" component of the Synberc, an NSF-funded Engineering Research Center between Berkeley and MIT focused on synthetic biology.
Rex Raimond has been a mediator with the Meridian Institute for more than five years, during which time he has developed the activities of Meridian’s Global Dialogue on Nanotechnologies and the Poor and has facilitated dialogue among universities and other research institutions resulting in the establishment of Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture.
David Rejeski directs the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center. For the past four years, he has also been the Director of the Foresight and Governance Project, an initiative designed to facilitate better long-term thinking and planning in the public sector.
Pamela Samuelson is a professor at the University of California at Berkeley with a joint appointment in the School of Information and the School of Law. She is also co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. Her principle area of expertise is intellectual property law.
Natasha Schull is an Assistant Professor for the program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. Last year, Schüll was a postdoctoral fellow at NYU’s International Center for Advanced Studies, and prior to that a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at Columbia University’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy. Received her received her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology at UC Berkeley in 2003, where she was the recipient of fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.
Adam Segal is the Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the director of the Council’s Independent Task Force on Chinese military power and is currently writing a book on Asia’s innovative capability and US technology.
Christina Smolke is Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Caltech. A current recipient of an NSF CAREER award and, in 2004, named as one of the world’s top 100 innovators, she is an instructor in the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM).
Kathleen Vogel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies and Peace Studies Program at Cornell University. Vogel holds a PhD in biological chemistry from Princeton University. Prior to joining the Cornell faculty, she was appointed a William C. Foster Fellow in the US Department of State’s Office of Proliferation Threat Reduction. Her principal research focuses on nonproliferation issues involving biological weapons.
Scott Vrecko is the Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in the department of sociology at the London School of Economics. He is an advisory expert to the European Neurosciences and Society Network.
Angele Wilkinson is Director of Scenario Planning and Futures Research at Oxford University’s James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization. She has been a senior member of the Global Business Environment team, which developed the well-known Shell Global Scenarios.
Gregor Wolbring is a Research Scientist at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine. He also holds several adjunct appointments in education, ethics, and law. Woldbring is an international leader in research and advocacy around bioethics and disability.
Conference Location
Big Sky, Montana
Big Sky, Montana is known for its breathtaking scenery, abundant wildlife and gracious hospitality. Located in southwest Montana, just 18 miles from West Yellowstone, the area shares the same splendor as Yellowstone National Park.
Big Sky Resort website
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