Conference's Aim is to Prepare the
Next Generation of Science Policymakers

House of Representatives Chambers

Entitled "Science and Technology in Context: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference," this AAAS-sponsored event on 23-25 April provides an opportunity for participants to discuss S&T in international development, defense and security, computers and communications. Graduate students will give presentations on topics raging from evaluating the impacts of science on society to issues concerning energy, biotechnology and medicine.

"The field of S&T policy has evolved a great deal to become a broad professional area of increasing importance. This conference is a timely opportunity to create and nurture the next generation professionals in S&T policy," said Amanda Hunt, co-organizer with AAAS.

This year's conference evolved from the AAAS Committee on Science and Engineering Policy four years ago as a means of educating future S&T policy professionals. The following year, a consortium of universities joined the effort to provide a venue for student presentations and solid career advice. More than 100 people are expected to attend the 2004 meeting.

In addition to scholarly presentations, the meeting will include an evening reception, keynote addresses, science policy career workshops and a career fair. Participants are students, young professionals and recent graduates interested in science, engineering and technology policy as a career or field of study.

"I hope the attendees come away with a better sense of the breadth of science and technology policy — both a sense of the variety of issues that policy work is addressing, and the wealth of approaches available to apply science and technology to solve societal problems and to improve the human condition," said Lara Campbell, AAAS senior program associate.

One keynote speaker, Sandra Harding of UCLA, is an acclaimed feminist philosopher of science who has written nine books, including The Science Question in Feminism (1986) and Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? (1991), considered classics in the philosophy of science. At the conference, she will provide a new feminist and postcolonial S&T perspective of the history of Western sciences and their philosophies.

On Saturday morning, Luke Georghiou from the University of Manchester, UK, will discuss how S&T professionals evaluate research and research impacts. Dr. Georghiou is director of PREST (Policy Research in Engineering, Science and Technology), and has published in the field of R&D evaluation and innovation.

The keynote speaker on Sunday morning will be Daniel Kleinman from the University of Wisconsin, who studies the sociology of science and technology, and is the author of Impure Cultures: University Biology and the World of Commerce.

Panelists from a broad range of backgrounds will describe the different career paths available in the S&T Policy field and how to get there. There also will be sponsored career information tables and an additional panel discussion on challenges for underrepresented groups in S&T.

The Graduate Student Conference will be held at AAAS headquarters in Washington, DC. Additional sponsors include the George Mason University School of Public Policy, the George Washington University Center for International Science and Technology Policy, and the Virginia Tech Science and Technology Studies Program.

This conference is free of charge and open to the public. It is scheduled so that participants also may attend the 29th Annual AAAS Forum on Science and Technology Policy on 22-23 April in Washington, DC. For more information, click here.

For more information about the conference and to register, click here.

—Carol Hoy

21 April 2004

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