Jason Delborne
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North Carolina State University 919-515-0106 |
Jason Delborne joined North Carolina State University in August 2013 in the Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program cluster in Genetic Engineering and Society. He serves as Associate Professor of Science, Policy and Society in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources within the College of Natural Resources. Delborne’s research focuses on highly politicized scientific controversies, such as agricultural biotechnology, nanotechnology, biofuels, and climate change. Drawing upon the highly interdisciplinary field of Science, Technology, and Society (STS), he engages various qualitative research methodologies to ask questions about how policymakers and members of the public interface with controversial science, especially emerging biotechnologies such as gene drives and synthetic biology. How we govern, promote, and develop emerging technologies will shape our collective future, and Delborne will contribute to the highly interdisciplinary efforts within the Genetic Engineering and Society Center that engage stakeholders and broader publics to wrestle with such questions.
Delborne previously served on the faculty at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) in the Division of Liberal Arts and International Studies. At CSM he launched an undergraduate minor and graduate certificate in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Policy, acting as the program advisor. He has also partnered with colleagues from Arizona State University to offer two-week workshops in Washington, D.C. to masters and doctoral students in science and engineering to introduce them to the ways in which science and policy intersect in our nation’s capital. Delborne has published peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Social Studies of Science, Public Understanding of Science, and Science and Public Policy, and he recently co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Responsible Innovation on gene drives. Delborne served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) committees on gene drives, which released its report, Gene Drives on the Horizon, in 2016 and is currently serving on the NASEM committee to explore the potential for biotechnology to address forest health.
