New Center to Study Nanotechnology's Social Impact

A multi-disciplinary team of investigators, led by Political Science's Professor Bruce Bimber, has been awarded a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study the social impacts of nanotechnology. (It appears that this may be the largest grant ever received in the social sciences at UCSB.)

Co-directors of the new Center will be Barbara Herr Harthorn, Assistant Director and research anthropologist at the Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research (ISBER), and W. Patrick McCray, Associate Professor of History. The goal of the new center is to promote interdisciplinary research to aid scientists, policy makers, and the public in understanding the societal implications of nanotechnology.

According to Professor Bimber, "A revolution in science and technology is going on around us and most people are only dimly aware of it. Our job at this new center is to try to understand how these technologies are affecting societies, and to influence the direction of innovation in positive ways."

(Quotation from 93106, October 17, 2005.)