Science, Technology, and Society Seminar: STS Circle at Harvard

Date: 

Monday, April 17, 2017, 12:15pm to 2:00pm

Location: 

CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262)

"Assessing and Mitigating Synthetic Biology Risks: Exemplary Cases and Cautionary Tales"

Speaker: 

Kenneth Oye, Professor of Political Science, School of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences; Professor of Data Systems and Society, School of Engineering; Director, the Program on Emerging Technologies (PoET), Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University.

Contact:

Shana Ashar
shana_ashar@hks.harvard.edu

Chair:

Sheila Jasanoff, Faculty Associate. Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard Kennedy School.

Lunch is provided if you RSVP via our online form by Thursday of the week before the event.

Biography: 

Kenneth Oye is Professor of Political Science (School of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences) and Data Systems and Society (School of Engineering) and Director of the Program on Emerging Technologies (PoET), with work on international relations, political economy and technology policy.  His work in international relations includes Cooperation under Anarchy, Economic Discrimination and Political Exchange, and four “Eagle” monographs on American foreign policy, and advisory work for the Petersen Institute, UNIDO and US Treasury, Commerce and EXIM.  His work in technology policy has focused on adaptive management of risks associated with synthetic biology, pharmaceuticals, the internet and nuclear energy, with papers in Nature, Science, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Politics and the Life Sciences and Issues in Science and Technology.  

Professor Oye is a faculty affiliate of the MIT Synthetic Biology Center, the Center for Biomedical Innovation, and the Internet Policy Research Initiative.  He chairs biosafety committees for iGEM and the Broad Institute Biofoundry and has served as an invited expert to the UN BWC, WHO, PCAST and NRC.  He is a recipient of the Levitan Award for Excellence in Teaching (2011), the Graduate Council Teaching Award (1998) and the Technology and Policy Program Faculty Appreciation Award (2003). Before coming to MIT, Professor Oye taught at Harvard University, the University of California, Princeton University and Swarthmore College. He holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from Swarthmore College with Highest Honors and a Ph.D in Political Science from Harvard University with the Chase Dissertation Prize.