Presenters

Ivan Amato, Managing Editor, Chemical & Engineering News
Vicki Colvin, Director, Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, and Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Chemical Engineering, Rice University
Martha J. Collins, Director, New Applications Research, Materials Research Center, Air Products and Chemicals
Roger Geiger, Distinguished Professor of Education, The Pennsylvania State University
Anthony Green, Vice President of Regional Technology Initiatives, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and Ben Franklin Director, The Nanotechnology Institute
Jaydee Hanson, Program Director, International Center for Technology Assessment
Barbara Karn, Office of Research and Development, Environmental Protection Agency
Frederick Klaessig, Technical Director, Aerosil and Silanes, Degussa USA
Evan Michelson, Research Associate, Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Clark Miller, Coprincipal Investigator, Center for Nanotechnology in Society, Arizona State University
Vladimir Murashov, Special Assistant to the Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
James Murday, Associate Director for Physical Sciences, Washington Office of Research Advancement, University of Southern California
Matthew Nisbet, Assistant Professor, Communication, American University
Chris Toumey, Research Associate Professor, University of South Carolina NanoCenter
John Trumpbour, Research Director, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School
Jan Youtie, Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy, and Principal Research Associate, Georgia Institute of Technology

Ivan Amato is the managing editor at Chemical & Engineering News. His field of coverage includes molecular biology; genomics and proteomics; materials science; the chemistry underlying the senses and sensory experience; technology and its impact on society; chemistry and culture; history of science; and visualization in science. Prior to C&E News, Amato was a staff writer for Science News and Science magazines and published feature articles in Fortune, Technology Review, the Washington Post, and several other publications.

Amato received a B.A. in chemistry from Rutgers University and an M.A. in history and philosophy of science from Indiana University. His latest book, Super Vision: A New View of Nature, is a celebration of science imagery.

Vicki Colvin is professor of chemistry and chemical engineering and director of the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN) at Rice University. CBEN was one of the first nanoscience and engineering centers funded by the National Science Foundation. One of CBEN's primary areas of interest is the application of nanotechnology to the environment.

Colvin has received numerous teaching accolades, including Phi Beta Kappa's Teaching Prize for 1998-1999 and the 2002 Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award. In 2002 she was named one of Discover Magazine's "Top 20 Scientists to Watch," and she received an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. Colvin received a bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a frequent contributor to Advanced Materials, Physical Review Letters, and other peer-reviewed journals, and she holds four patents.

Martha J. Collins is director of the Materials Research Center (MRC), New Applications, at Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (APD). The MRC partners across APD businesses to provide breakthrough materials technology for four strategic growth platforms. Collins is accountable for resourcing, strategy development, and management of teams that produce and apply prototype material products into new markets for APD. She is also business technology manager of the Advanced Materials Business Team.

Prior to joining Air Products, Collins worked as a project leader and technical member of a business team credited with building a $500 million business platform for Eastman Chemical Company. She spent time early in her career developing new products for Union Carbide Corporation. Collins earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, and holds 13 U.S. patents.

Roger Geiger is a distinguished professor of education at The Pennsylvania State University and professor in charge of the university’s Higher Education Program. His principal fields of study are the history of American higher education and research universities.

Geiger is the author of numerous books, including Knowledge and Money: Research Universities and the Paradox of the Marketplace (2004) and The American College in the Nineteenth Century (2000). He is editor of Perspectives on the History of Higher Education and a section editor of the Encyclopedia of Higher Education. He received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan, and he held various appointments at Yale University Institution for Social and Policy Studies (1974–1987) before joining the faculty at Penn State.

Anthony Green Anthony Green is vice president of regional technology initiatives for Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP) and Ben Franklin Director of The Nanotechnology Institute (NTI). At BFTP/SEP, Green focuses on Ben Franklin's larger and regionwide technology partnerships and major initiatives, including the NTI; the Mid-Atlantic Nanotechnology Alliance; new and evolving life sciences initiatives, including the IP Donation Program and Keystone Innovation Zones; and the development and implementation of new commercialization models.

Green has over 30 years experience in the biotechnology industry, with a specialization in the research, development, and commercialization of cutting-edge technologies primarily in small emerging companies, including Centocor and Puresyn. Green earned a B.S. in immunology from Brown University and a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Temple University School of Medicine.

Jaydee Hanson is program director for the International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA). Hanson directs CTA's work on human genetics, including work on stem cell research, cloning, and gene and embryo patenting. He served as the United Methodist Church's staff director of genetics and bioethics issues from 1981 to 2004. From 1991 to 2004, he was also the church’s legislative director. He coordinated the 1995 religious leaders' statement opposing gene and animal patenting, which was endorsed by more than 200 leaders across the spectrum of U.S. religious traditions.

Hanson has served on many committees related to public policy and genetics. He chaired both the National Council of Churches' Exploratory Commission on the New Human Genetics and its Eco-Justice Working Group Biotechnology Taskforce. He is a member of the World Council of Churches' genetics and nanotechnology committees, which developed new policy for that worldwide body of 400 denominations. He served on the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Science and Religion Advisory Committee and the Ecumenical Roundtable on Science and Religion. He is also a Fellow of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future.

Barbara Karn is a scientist in the Office of Research and Development at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Karn has led the EPA’s research grants program for nanotechnologies in the agency’s Office of Research and Development since the program’s establishment in 2001. She also represented the EPA on the interagency Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology (NSET) subcommittee of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, National Science and Technology Council.

Karn holds a Ph.D. in biology and environmental science from Florida International University. She has master’s degrees from Cleveland State University and Case Western Reserve University and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Ohio State University. Her professional background ranges from electroplating to polymers, from environmental consultant to small-business owner, and from academic administrator to water-quality-management planner. She is the lead editor of the book Nanotechnology and the Environment: Applications and Implications.

Frederick Klaessig is technical director of the Aerosil & Silanes business unit at Degussa Corporation. His responsibilities range from technical service and new product introduction to regulatory matters and liaising with the R&D department. He was previously a quality control chemist at Bio Rad Laboratories. He also held various management positions at Betz Laboratories, now a division of GE Water Services, where his responsibilities involved scale and corrosion control in many chemical industrial processes.

Klaessig has a B.Sc. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Evan Michelson is a research associate for the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. He has worked on a wide variety of issues in science and technology policy, including the impact of science and technology on international development, public understanding of emerging technologies, science and technology foresight, and the intersection between science and popular culture. Michelson received an M.A. in international science and technology policy from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University, an M.A. in philosophical foundations of physics from Columbia University, and a B.A. in philosophy of science from Brown University. He served as a visiting researcher in the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation’s Performance Assessment Team as part of the National Science Foundation’s Korea Summer Institute.

In 2004 Michelson developed public outreach and education programs as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow at the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academies. He has held research assistant positions at the Converging Technologies Bar Association and FasterCures/The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions. Michelson received a 2005 Navigator Award from the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars. He has published articles in several journals and collections, including the Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, and Converging Technologies for Human Progress.

Clark Miller is the coprincipal investigator for the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University. Trained in electrical engineering, atmospheric physics, and science and technology studies, he works across disciplines on issues in science and technology policy and the human dimensions of global environmental change. Miller held a postdoctoral fellowship in science, technology, and public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and he is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

Miller is a founding co-organizer of the Science and Democracy Network, a professional community that strengthens scholarly understanding of the politics of science and technology in democracies. In 2003 he served as a consultant to the United Nations Environment Programme. Miller coedited Changing the Atmosphere: Expert Knowledge and Environmental Governance. His research has appeared in Social Studies of Science; Science and Public Policy; Environmental Values; and Science, Technology, and Human Values. He received a doctorate in electrical engineering from Cornell University.

Vladimir Murashov is a special assistant to the director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Prior to his appointment as special assistant on nanotechnology, Murashov served as a senior scientist in the office of the director.

Murashov received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. In 2001 he joined NIOSH as a Senior Service Fellow to conduct computational chemistry studies of molecular dynamics and reactions on mineral surfaces. In 2004, as part of the Environmental and Health Implication working group representing NIOSH, Murashov became an active member of the Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Committee on Technology and Nanotechnology. He represents NIOSH in the Toxics and Risk Subcommittee of the NSTC’s Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. He is also a member of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to the International Organization for Standardization's Technical Committee on Nanotechnology.

James Murday is associate director for physical sciences in the University of Southern California’s Washington Office of Research Advancement. Murday's previous career at the Naval Research Laboratory included leading the Surface Chemistry programs (1975–1987) and the Chemistry Division (1988–2006). Additional responsibilities included tenures as director of research for the Department of Defense, Research, and Engineering; chief scientist, Office of Naval Research; director, National Nanotechnology Coordination Office; and executive secretary to the U.S. National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Nanometer Science Engineering and Technology.

Murday holds a Ph.D. in experimental solid state physics from Cornell University and a B.S. in physics from Case Institute of Technology. His research interests have spanned nuclear magnetic resonance, surface science, and nanoscale science and technology. He has published over 100 papers and reports.

Matthew Nisbet, an assistant professor of communication at American University, is a social scientist who studies the nature and impacts of strategic communication. Nisbet received an A.B. in government from Dartmouth College and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in communication from Cornell University. His current work tracks scientific and environmental controversies, examining the interactions between experts, journalists, and various publics.

At American University, Nisbet teaches courses in political communication, communication and society, graduate research, and communication theory. He was previously on the faculty at The Ohio State University, and he has also taught at Cornell University and Dresden Technical University, Germany. Nisbet has served as a consultant to the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation as well as other government agencies and nongovernmental organizations.

Chris Toumey is a cultural anthropologist in the University of South Carolina NanoCenter. His book God's Own Scientists (1994) asked how creationists interpret science to make it seem that secular science enhanced the credibility of ultraconservative moral theories. In Conjuring Science (1996) he explored the cultural dynamics of popular symbols of science in public scientific controversies. More recently he became interested in the question of how nonexperts could have active and constructive roles in nanotechnology policy discussions. He has published several articles on the theoretical grounding of that problem, including "National Discourses on Democratizing Nanotechnology," which appeared in Quaderni.

Toumey has created a dialogue-based program on nanotech in which scientists and nonexperts exchange scientific knowledge and social knowledge, i.e., the values and concerns of the nonexpert participants. That program also generated, in 2006, a science café in Columbia, South Carolina. This spring Toumey constructed a dialogue-based program on fuel cell and hydrogen technology to examine whether his model of dialogue could serve a scientific topic other than nanotech.

John Trumpbour is the research director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. He studied history at Stanford University and received a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is a staff member of the Science and Engineering Workforce Project at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Trumpbour is the editor of The Dividing Rhine: Politics and Society in Contemporary France and Germany and the author of Selling Hollywood to the World: U.S. and European Struggles for Mastery of the Global Film Industry, 1920–1950. He cowrote an essay on Latino workers for the book Latinos: Remaking America (2002). In 2007 he served as guest editor of The Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal for its special issue "The Crisis in Workplace Governance."

Jan Youtie is director of the Program in Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy and principal research associate at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She specializes in applied research in economic development, manufacturing modernization, and telecommunications policy areas. She has been a principal investigator in studies sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Aspen Institute, the Georgia Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technologies, the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education, and the Georgia Office of Planning and Budget.

Youtie has been appointed as a member of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership Ninth Year Review Panel. Her publications include Telecommunications Strategy for Economic Development (1996; coauthored) and the Lang Rosen Gold Award–winning articles "Tracking Customer Progress" and "Coordinating Industrial Modernization Services: Impacts and Insights from the U.S. Manufacturing Extension Partnership," which appeared in the Journal of Technology Transfer.