Please note: This talk has been rescheduled from November 29 to Thursday, December 13. 

Genevieve Maricle, CSTPR and ENVS graduate student at CU, will give a talk on Thursday, December 13, 2007 on "Shaping Science: Turning Science Studies into Science Action". The talk will be from 12:00 - 1:00 pm in the CSTPR Conference Room.

The talk is free and open to the public and will be held at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research's conference room. Click here for directions.

This will be a "brown bag seminar". Feel free to bring your lunches if you wish.

Abstract: Over the past fifty years, the study of science and its relationship with policy and society has evolved into a mature field of study. Its scholars, who come from a variety of disciplinary traditions, are better defined by their shared interests and goals than by some common method or title.  Increasingly, they seek to engage and inform decisions about science and technology so that the scientific research enterprise may better meet society's needs.  Their motivation is both internal and external.
 
Externally, demand is high. John Marburger, the US President's science advisor recommends that we develop "a science of science policy," and several pieces of legislation in specific fields suggest that this study of science should be well-integrated into our decisions about science.

In response, science studies has offered critiques of the knowledge production enterprise, analyses of society's needs and interests, and suggestions for how science might shift to better achieve societal goals. Yet it has not thus far evaluated how successful it has been in achieving its goals. Without such an evaluation – or the criteria for it- science studies scholars cannot iterate and redirect efforts within their field.  An opportunity exists, therefore to do just this - to systematically evaluate the successes and failures of this community.  Accordingly, this talk - a summary of Genevieve's dissertation - asks: "how does sciences studies research influence decisions about science?"  It does so in the context of science studies research on global change and nanotechnology research agendas – in the US and the UK.  Come ready to ask tough questions!

Biography: Genevieve Maricle is a graduate student in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder studying Atmospheric Science and Environmental Policy. Her research focuses on climate services and the transfer of technology from climate research to useful weather and climate products for both decision-makers and climate-sensitive end users.

She graduated from Northwestern University with a BA degree in both Mathematics and Environmental Science. Her undergraduate studies were primarily in the sciences but she maintained a keen awareness and interest in the political implications of her work. She became extremely interested in studying problems that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries as she began to see a disconnect between the scientific and political worlds. This is what drew her to the University of Colorado.