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Alumni and Friends: La Follette Notes Fall 2004
Initiative explores nanotechnology’s societal effects
Clark Miller, assistant professor with the La Follette School, will lead a new $1.25 million interdisciplinary initiative exploring the social, economic, and political dimensions of nanotechnology — emerging technologies that enable the control and manipulation of matter at molecular and quantum scales.
The funding is part of a new, five-year, $13.4 million Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center grant awarded by the National Science Foundation to establish a Center for Templated Synthesis and Assembly at the Nanoscale at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“This initiative demonstrates UW-Madison’s commitment to playing a leadership role not only in scientific and technological research but also in promoting research and public engagement on the opportunities and challenges of moving science and technology out of the laboratory and into society,” Miller says.
“As it becomes an integral element in our daily lives, nanotechnology will create new means for people to act and interact with one another and with the world around us,” Miller says. “The results are likely to call into question notions of fundamental cultural importance, such as human agency, identity, rights, responsibilities, and values. Already, for example, the manufacture of nanoparticles has prompted complex regulatory dilemmas regarding the possibility of new threats to human health and environmental sustainability.”
Working in partnership with the Robert and Jean Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies, Miller will lead UW-Madison researchers in economics, sociology, history, bioethics, communication, public affairs, and engineering to explore these issues. The initiative also includes partners at Harvard and Oxford universities.
The findings and recommendations will be shared with leaders in business, policy, and civil society, notes Miller. The project is a model for bridging the natural and social sciences in other research areas at UW-Madison and other campuses.
“As we enter the 21st century, modern societies face hard choices about how to construct their technological futures,” Miller says. “I believe universities have the capacity and the responsibility to help people make those choices wisely.”
Index to La Follette Notes fall 2004