NNCI Monthly Webinar: Societal and Ethical Implications – Looking Back at 20 Years of Nano in Society

Societal and Ethical Implications: Looking Back at 20 Years of Nano in Society | A Panel Discussion

Abstract: In a major address at Caltech in 2000, President Bill Clinton unveiled the National Nanotechnology Initiative and proposed doubling the federal funding for nanoscale research in the United States. President Clinton gave the speech in front of a map of the Western hemisphere created out of gold atoms. Looking back at it he joked: ”I think you will find more enduring uses of nanotechnology.” Since that day the federal government has poured billions of dollars into nanoscale R&D and scientists and engineers have indeed found more enduring uses. Questions, concerns, and excitement about the social aspects and implications of nanotechnology have accompanied this effort every step of the way. This panel brings together two scholars who have played important roles in exploring nano in society over the past twenty years. They will reflect on the changes in the way that scholars, governments, corporations, and the general public engage with nanotechnology over the last two decades.

Bio: David Berube is Professor of Science and Technology Communication, North Carolina State University and Director of Assessment & Societal and Ethical Implications of Nanotechnology for the Research Triangle Nanotechnology Network. Beginning in 2004, he was Research Director and Coordinator of Industrial and Government Relations of the University of South Carolina NanoCenter and has been involved in nano and society ever since, including serving as the director of communication for the International Council on Nanotechnology.

Bio: Andrew Maynard is an Associate Dean & Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the College of Global Futures at Arizona State University. After completing a PhD on aerosol particle physics, he began to focus more and more on issues of safety, policy, and society and by 2005 was Chief Science Advisor at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies.

Bio: Jameson Wetmore is Associate Director for SEI at the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure Coordinating Office and Deputy Director of Nanotechnology Collaborative Infrastructure Southwest. He began working on nanotechnology as part of the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at ASU in 2006.

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