Graduate Students and Policy Advisors Discuss the Future of Science and Technology
by Jocelyn Rappaport
For three days graduate students interested in studying science and technology shared their research and listened to experts at the 10th annual Science and Technology In Society Conference in Washington, D.C. This interdisciplinary graduate student conference attracts students throughout the country and internationally to discuss global policy topics involving science and technology. Each year the conference has high ranking government officials and leading experts on Science and Technology Policy and Studies deliver keynote addresses.
Dr. John Holdren was the opening keynote speaker at this year's conference, "Innovating the Future: Critical Perspectives in Science and Technology." Holdren, on leave from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, is President Obama's science advisor and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He is considered an authority on nuclear weapons, energy technology, and climate change.
Holdren discussed the importance of science and technology to the president and many of the administration's initiatives, successes, and goals. After his presentation many students took the opportunity during the question and answer session to ask him about details on topics of particular interest to their research.
Following Dr. Holdren was Dr. Vicky Seyfert-Margolis, senior advisor for the Office of the Chief Scientist at the Food and Drug Administration. Seyfert-Margolis previously served as chief scientific officer of the Immune Tolerance Network, a non-profit consortium of researchers seeking new treatments for diseases of the immune system. Other keynote speakers during the three-day conference were Dr. Mohammed T. El-Ashry, senior fellow of the UN Foundation and Dr. Vint Cerf, vice-president of Google.
School of Public Policy (SPP) doctoral students Yu Jin Jung and Dana Dolan were on the organizing committee this year and four of the eight Mason student presenters were SPP doctoral students (Brian Higginbotham, Jing "Lee" Li, Jeremiah Mitoko, Jennifer Sklarew). SPP Professors, David Hart (director of SPP's Center for Science and Technology Policy), Todd La Porte, Philip Auerswald, and Katrin Anacker served as moderators for one or more of the panels. Fifty-seven graduate students from thirty universities and seven countries presented at fourteen panel discussions. More than twenty students had poster presentations.
SPP doctoral student Ryan Zelnio was involved as an organizer from 2007 through 2009. He first presented a paper at the conference in 2007. "The presentations are always incredible and I've learned much from them," says Zelnio. "This conference allows you to build a network of scholars who share a similar interest of study." Recently, Zelnio has been a consultant in technology assessment for the Science and Technology Institute.
George Mason School of Public Policy is a founding member of this event, which is hosted by and for graduate students. This year it was merged with a policy forum organized by the National Academies, and the meeting was jointly hosted by the Academies and by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. School of Public Policy along with George Washington University, Virginia Tech, Arizona State University, and Mines ParisTech, were the academic institutions that comprised the organizing consortium (STGlobal Consortium) this year.
"Congratulations to Yu Jin, Dana, and the other student participants," says SPP Professor and faculty advisor David Hart. "We're already looking forward to next year's conference."
Learn more about the presenters, conference, and consortium.