From the Director
Science, technology, and biomedical research policy are now firmly in a dynamic historical moment. CSPO’s longstanding argument that the success of federal research should ultimately be judged by the outcomes it creates for the public and American communities is increasingly becoming part of the everyday policy conversation in Washington. Focusing on key dimensions of these debates, CSPO ran a well-attended New Tools for Science Policy series this spring. The series brought together federal policy implementers, researchers, and decision leaders to explore practical approaches for improving the public value and societal benefits of federal science and technology programs. Sessions addressed topics ranging from biotechnology governance and biosecurity to genetic data, research integrity, and AI-enabled evidence tools, emphasizing actionable ideas for redesigning the U.S. scientific enterprise. To watch the full series and explore each session, visit the CSPO YouTube playlist here: CSPO DC
Enjoying the World Cup but hating VAR (video assistant referee)? For more on the evolving relationship between technology and competitive sports, check out Arthur’s co-authored article (with Smithsonian historian Eric Hintz), “Sports in an Algorithmic Era,” published in Interfaces: Essays and Reviews on Computing and Culture v 7, 28-40. For a deeper dive into invention, innovation, and governance in sports, explore Inventing for Sports.
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✨ Summer Spotlight: Meet Our Newest Team Member ✨
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Zachary G. Pirtle, Ph.D.
CSPO is excited to welcome Zachary G. Pirtle, Ph.D. as Deputy Director in Washington, DC, and Professor of Practice in ASU’s Rob Walton College of Global Futures. Pirtle brings more than 15 years of leadership in engineering, strategy, and science policy from NASA Headquarters, where he advanced initiatives spanning lunar exploration, human spaceflight, and innovation policy. An ASU alumnus with a Ph.D. in systems engineering, his research focuses on engineering knowledge, ethics, science and innovation policy, and space exploration. At CSPO, Pirtle is expanding research and policy analysis while strengthening partnerships with federal science and technology leaders to advance the consortium’s mission of improving societal outcomes through science and engineering.
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Ethics, Epistemology, and Engineering
On April 24-26th, Zach Pirtle was a keynote speaker at the University of Delaware’s Ethics, Epistemology and Engineering Workshop, hosted by the Center for Science, Ethics and Public Policy. His keynote discussed how engineering knowledge gets distributed across levels of management and systems engineering oversight. This has important policy and management implications for how to best conduct commercial space activities with government technical assistance. Alongside fellow keynote speaker Deborah Johnson (University of Virginia), Pirtle’s talk and the research presented at the workshop highlight the value of discussing ethics and epistemology jointly.
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How Do Moon Missions Reflect Changes in Science’s Social Contract?
On May 20, Zach Pirtle participated as a panelist in the Issues in Science and Technology event, “How Do Moon Missions Reflect Changes in Science’s Social Contract?” The discussion explored how evolving approaches to lunar exploration are reshaping partnerships among government, industry, and society, and what those shifts mean for the future of science policy.
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2026 Forum on Philosophy, Engineering and Technology (fPET)
The 2026 Forum on Philosophy, Engineering, and Technology (fPET) was held June 9–11 at the University of Maryland, College Park. Sponsored in part by CSPO, the conference brought together 122 participants from 10 countries and featured 72 presentations on engineering ethics, engineering knowledge, artificial intelligence, sustainability, space ethics, policy engagement, and related topics. fPET fosters collaboration among engineers, philosophers, and social scientists to strengthen the reflective engineering culture that supports CSPO’s mission of improving the societal outcomes of engineering. Zach Pirtle (CSPO) co-chaired the conference with David Tomblin (UMD) and Guru Madhavan (NAE). Keynote speakers were Zoe Szajnfarber (GWU), Matthew Wisnioski (Virginia Tech), and Sabine Ammon (TU Berlin). Pirtle also serves as co-chair of the overall fPET Steering Committee alongside Viola Schiaffonati.
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An “Unprecedented Experiment” – Founding and Establishing the ELSI Program
At the 7th ELSI Congress, held June 22 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Professor Bob Cook-Deegan co-moderated the three-person panel, “An ‘Unprecedented Experiment’: Founding and Establishing the ELSI Program.” The session featured distinguished guests Lori Andrews, Eric Juengst, and Jean McEwen, who reflected on the origins and development of the ELSI Program.
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CSPO Conversation: Social and Behavioral Science for Solving Global Futures Problems
On July 13, CSPO brought together participants from a variety of policy, scientific, and institutional perspectives. Held under Chatham House Rules, the event discussed the role of the social sciences in interdisciplinary research and the role of science in solving global futures problems. The event was timely, given the significant changes to the social and behavioral sciences proposed in the FY 2027 President’s Budget Request. Beyond excellent speakers and commentary, participants helped brainstorm several organizational and scientific approaches for the future of the social and behavioral sciences as well as assess their science policy implications. One piece of background for the conversation was Pirtle’s review of Mark Solovey’s history of social science research at the National Science Foundation. CSPO intends to share more insights from this event in the near future.
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Participatory Technology Assessment (pTA) Activities
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Deliberative State Governance Initiative
February 18, 2026, Washington, DC: Mahmud Farooque was part of a panel of U.S. deliberative democracy experts who were featured at the inaugural workshop of the Federation of Innovation in Democracy’s North America’s Deliberative State Governance Initiative. He was joined by Jeffery Marino from the California Office of Innovation, Amy Lee from Ohio State University, and Harry Nathan Gottlieb from Unify America. Together with experts from Europe and Canada, they sat with policymakers from Pennsylvania, Washington, Utah, Kentucky, and Maryland to discuss how state governments can use Citizens’ Assemblies to bring the public back into policymaking, all while strengthening states, communities, and government institutions.
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Plan C for Civilization Focus Groups
March 14 & 15, 2026, Princeton, NJ & Philadelphia, PA: Emily Hostetler led the design, development, and implementation of a focus group study involving community members in Princeton, NJ, and Philadelphia, PA. Working in collaboration with documentary filmmaker and Drexel adjunct professor Ben Kalina, the study examined how members of the public understand, evaluate, and respond to climate intervention technologies after watching the documentary Plan C for Civilization and participating in structured, facilitated discussions.
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Workshop on the Future of Public Research in American Democracy
March 24, 2026, Palo Alto, CA: The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University hosted a workshop on the future of public research in American democracy. Mahmud joined a diverse group of researchers and academics spanning scientific fields, scholars of democracy and institutions, foundation leaders, technology executives, and national security experts. This unique conversation, co-led by former Science Advisor and WHOSTP Director Arati Prabhakar and CASBS Director Professor Margaret Levi, focused on the interactions among scientific autonomy and democratic accountability, expert knowledge and public voice, and the present moment and future ambitions for a more accountable and responsive science that serves the American public.
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Building Informed and Involved Communities for Responsible Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal – Building an mCDR Roadmap
March 26, 2026, Washington DC: Mara Karageozain & Mahmud Farooque led the final convening for the CSPO Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR) Workshop Series. It brought together members of the NSF-funded project’s advisory board and mCDR research, development, and policy leaders from academia, government, non-profit, and industry to provide guidance on finalizing the mCDR community capacity-building roadmap, to be released in late summer 2026
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Engineering our Planet Part I: Lessons from the Engagement Frontier
March 26, 2026, Washington, DC: Mahmud Farooque, Emily Hostetler, Mara Karageozian, and Nich Weller hosted the launch of the report “Carbon Dioxide Removal Technology: Public Forums and Application to Governance Framework”. This report details the framing and findings of the collaborative project between CSPO, the Museum of Science, Boston, and the University of Calgary that convened public forums in Boston and Vancouver. The program featured a panel discussion with John Mimikakis (Environmental Defense Fund), Rory Jacobson (Carbon Direct), Amanda Borth (ASTC), and David Tomblin (UMD), and CSPO’s Mara Karageozian and Emily Hostetler, moderated by Lisa Margonelli (Issues). It included a simulation of the Climate Conundrum forum and a networking reception.
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Engineering our Planet Part II: Building Platforms for Geoengineering Research and Governance
March 27, 2026, Washington, DC: Arthur Daemmrich moderated a panel discussion featuring Andrew Light (GMU), Kei Koizumi (GWU), Michael Thompson (DSG), and Mahmud Farooque that focused on moving from unsuccessful field experiments to academic programs, federal policy, governance capacity, and transdisciplinary research platforms for solar geoengineering. It was followed by the screening of the documentary, Plan C for Civilization, and a discussion with its director, Ben Kalina.
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Symposium on Technology and Civic Leadership
April 2-3, 2026, Atlanta, GA: Mahmud Farooque joined Kara Dillard from the James Madison University Center for Civic Engagement and James Patton Rogers from the Cornell Tech Policy Institute for a panel discussion on informing public debate at the intersection of technology and policy. The panel was part of the Inaugural Symposium to launch the Georgia Tech Institute for Technology and Civic Leadership, which featured a dialogue on fruitful disagreements in an era of rapid technological change by Professors Robert George and Cornel West.
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New Book on Building Capacity for Public Engagement on Solar Geoengineering
April 16, 2026, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Elements series published a briefing book and methods toolkit to build capacity for public engagement on Solar Geoengineering. The book, available in both online and print, was authored by Sikina Jinnah, Zachary Dove, Shuchi Talati, Erika Check Hayden, Alice Siu, and Mahmud Farooque. It explains the need to build capacity for public engagement on solar geoengineering and presents three methods, including participatory Technology Assessment.
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Fireside Chat on Democratizing Climate Governance
April 23, 2026, Washington, DC: K.L. Akerloff, Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University, moderated a CSPO Fireside Chat on Democratizing Climate Governance during DC Climate Week. Bjørn Bedsted, International Director at Democracy X and former Deputy Director at the Danish Board of Technology (DBT), joined Mahmud Farooque, virtually, for a conversation that revisited the original impetus behind large-scale citizen participation efforts, such as the World Wide Views; examined the evolving tension between legitimacy and speed in participatory processes in the midst of rising populism and declining trust in institutions.
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2026 Public Interest Communication (PIC) Summer Institute
May 21, 2026, Phoenix, AZ: Nich Weller and Jen Richter presented work from CSPO’s 3CAZ (3c.cspo.org) project on collaborative siting for nuclear waste management at the 2026 PIC Summer Institute co-hosted by ASU Cronkite School.. Workshop attendees included communications scholars, practitioners, and students. The workshop began with a demonstration of the 3CAZ deliberative activities, followed by group discussion about strategies to meaningfully involve communities in decisions about science and technology issues.
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American Science@ 250 – Public Focus Groups on Planning for America’s Future
May 2026, Boston, MA, Phoenix, AZ, and Jackson’s Mill, West Virginia. Emily Hostetler, Mara Karageozian, Mahmud Farooque, and Nich Weller conducted public focus group dialogues to explore public perspectives and values about the American Scientific Enterprise to inform CSPO’s ongoing American Science@ 250: Rethink, Reimagine, Redesign efforts. Results from the focus groups highlighted participants’ priorities and ideas such as:
- Societal outcomes of research, science, and technology in discussions about the past, present, and future
- Science and learning are worthy of public investment regardless of their contributions to specific societal and technological outcomes
- Skepticism of governing institutions and their past and present decision-making about science
- Importance of a variety of values and considerations regarding governing publicly-funded research
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Boston, MA Focus Group on May 11 – 12, 2026
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American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows Forum
May 26, 2026, Washington, DC: Mahmud Farooque participated in the induction ceremony honoring the 2025 elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His election was announced in March for “Distinguished contribution to developing the tools, methods and best practices necessary to bring public views and values into the science and technology policymaking process.”
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mCDR Convening at CHOW
June 3, 2026, Washington DC: Mara Karageozian co-organized a series of climate-focused panel conversations at the 2026 Capitol Hill Ocean Week in Washington DC. Co-hosts included the Carbon to Sea Initiative, Ocean Visions, Carbon180, The World Resources Institute and COMPASS. The first panel focused on Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR) and U.S. ocean and climate policy, and the second panel discussed mCDR as a potential ocean-climate solution, its risks, and community considerations for development.
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Forum on Philosophy, Engineering, and Technology
June 10, 2026, College Park, MD: Mara Karageozian, Nich Weller and Mahmud Farooque presented an interactive workshop session on participatory technology assessment (pTA) to engineers and philosophers attending fPET 2026 at the University of Maryland. It included a simulation of a pTA forum on Solar Geoengineering, a presentation of methodology and case study, and an audience Q&A.
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Meet our Summer Interns
We are pleased to welcome six talented summer interns to our team. Throughout the summer, they will contribute to ongoing projects while gaining hands-on experience in research, policy, and program activities. We look forward to working with them and invite you to get to know them below.
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Porter Malcolm
Porter is spending the summer as an intern with the American Science @250 team. He has supported data analysis for the initial stages of the participatory Technology Assessment (pTA) process and is helping design the public forums that will be held as part of the initiative. At the University of Michigan, Porter studies mechanical engineering and sociology and conducts qualitative research in engineering education, design science, and public engagement.
Mia Peterson
Mia recently graduated from Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University with concurrent degrees in Biological Sciences, Global Health, and International Relations. Her honors thesis explored science diplomacy as a tool for peace building, reflecting her interest in how science can foster a more prosperous and collaborative world. This summer at the CSPO, Mia is developing a science policy case study that will be used to educate future science policy professionals. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling and staying active.
Asha Dees
Asha graduated from Dartmouth College in 2025 with degrees in Biology and International Affairs. She is broadly interested in how technology can be used to address chronic disease and reduce health disparities, an interest she explored as a Lombard Fellow in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This summer at CSPO, Asha is supporting research and writing for case studies examining National Science Foundation funding, training, and relationship-building in community research. Outside of work, she enjoys reading and is looking forward to the FIFA World Cup while spending the summer in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
Joshua Barry
Joshua is a senior at Arizona State University pursuing dual degrees in Political Science and Astrobiology & Biogeosciences. As a member of ASU’s Space Governance Lab, he has been actively engaged in space policy and interdisciplinary research throughout his academic career. His experience includes an Intelligence Community Fellowship through the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s IC CAE program at ASU, as well as an R&D engineering internship with Wham Bam Systems. This summer at CSPO, Joshua is contributing to projects focused on space economics, commercial cislunar initiatives, and the governance of emerging technologies.
Eyan Weissbluth
Eyan recently graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics and will begin a Master of Public Policy at ASU this fall. During his undergraduate studies, he conducted research in astrophysics, served as a NASA Space Grant intern for three consecutive years, interned in the Washington, D.C., office of Congressman Steny Hoyer, and was elected to the ASU Undergraduate Student Government Senate. This summer at CSPO, Eyan is contributing to a technology policy handbook exploring the relationship between the federal government and emerging technologies.
Jeslyn Cho
Jeslyn is a junior at Rice University majoring in Political Science with a minor in Global Health Technologies. She is interested in exploring how science and technology can more effectively inform federal policymaking. This summer, Jeslyn is conducting research and writing case studies on federal technology initiatives for the U.S. Technology Policy Case Handbook, a forthcoming resource for master’s students in science and technology policy at Arizona State University.
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