Tomorrow I’m headed back to the District and delighted to be participating in the 2009 Science and Technology in Society Conference hosted by the ST Global Consortium at AAAS.  I’m on the career panel Saturday afternoon in excellent company with Alicia Jackson of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and Debra Mathews from the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. Earlier in the day, I’ll also be moderating a student panel on education–coincidentally the same theme of my panel at the NYAS Two Culture Conference in May. Chris and I take on this subject comprehensively in Unscientific America and I’ll have a lot to contribute to the discussion.  As for the purpose of the STS conference:

The emerging fields of Science and Technology Policy (STP) and Science and Technology Studies (STS) have become prominent disciplines in recent years.

The increasing prevalence of technology issues – in governmental policies and the public eye – demands a workforce equipped with the tools and training necessary to negotiate these complex relationships. Though often from different perspectives, STS and STP deal with many of the same issues.

Traditionally, however, there has been little communication between the two. Thus, the main purpose of the Conference is to bridge that divide and provide a forum for networking, bringing together graduate students from historically fragmented communities to learn from one another. We hope the event will add value to students’ research and writing, and contribute important new ideas to the S&T challenges of the day.

I always love the opportunity to speak with students and am really looking forward to the weekend.  The full agenda and list of speakers suggest it will be a wonderful event and I hope to see some readers there!