New school explores how we can best make the future we want

The future is near!

But since it is always just around the corner or over the horizon, we still have a lot to learn about the best ways to get where we are going.

Studying the implications of technological and social innovations is interesting, but it does little to ensure the outcomes we hope for. Recognizing and understanding how to get where we want to be is at the core of the next big advance at ASU: the School for the Future of Innovation in Society.

The new school, focused on exploring the possible futures of humanity and how we will achieve them, is celebrating its first semester at Arizona State University with the beginning of the fall, 2015 term.

David Guston, named founding director of the school, explained, “We are focused on the role of knowledge and both technical and social innovation in improving human outcomes and creating future societies. A central tenet of the school is the understanding of what we need to do now to create the kinds of futures that humans will want to inhabit.”

The school integrates faculty from a broad array of fields, most of whom have been affiliated with the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO). CSPO was brought to ASU by its co-founder, ASU president Michael Crow, in 2004 and is co-directed by Guston and Professor Daniel Sarewitz. CSPO will continue to have a close affiliation with the school and to host the unique and vibrant research for which it has garnered an international reputation.

The school’s interdisciplinary programs are ideal for students with career goals in research, teaching, public service, communication, international development, and science and technology policy. SFIS is launching with 154 students enrolled in the graduate programs and the development of an undergraduate major and minor in its future. The school, Guston says, “has an ambitious agenda for enrollment growth and for the catalysis and creation of new degree programs.”

Programs

Programs in the new school include master’s degrees in Science and Technology Policy, Global Technology and Development, and Applied Ethics and the Professions (with concentrations in Biomedical & Health Ethics and Science, Technology & Ethics), as well as a PhD in Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology and a graduate certificate in Responsible Innovation. The school also offers an immersion program, Science Outside the Laboratory (SOtL), in Washington D.C.

New Faculty

In addition to adopting faculty and staff from CSPO, the school has recruited dynamic new faculty members.

Andrew Maynard, whose research focuses on the responsible development and use of emerging technologies – including nanotechnology and synthetic biology – science communication and science engagement, will be directing the new Risk Innovation Lab at ASU, which will focus on transforming how we think about and act on risk. Professor Maynard commented, “With its emphasis on outcomes, the new School for the Future of Innovation in Society represents a step-change in how we train future thought-leaders in ensuring innovation serves society, and in how we generate the new knowledge and insights that they will rely on. Built on ASU’s inspirational Design Aspirations, and drawing on a highly talented and interdisciplinary group of thinkers and practitioners, the school is set to transcend limiting boundaries in the pursuit of socially relevant research and practice, and transform how we innovate in the service of society. At a time when the stakes involved in technology innovation are perhaps higher than ever before, I am looking forward to the chance to explore how new thinking on risk can support socially responsive and responsible innovation.”

Colleagues of Maynard’s at the Risk Science Center, which he directed at the University of Michigan, are joining the new school as well. Diana Megan Bowman will hold a joint position with the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and she will direct a project on ingredient safety and risk assessment and communication with $400,000 funding. Michael Bennett will have a joint position with the Center for Science and the Imagination as well as an affiliation with the law school, and he is Principal Investigator on an award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies (S.NET).

“Over the years, I’ve treasured my visits to ASU and CSPO,” noted Lekelia “Kiki” Jenkins, who is joining SFIS from the University of Washington’s School of Marine and Environmental Affairs. “I can honestly say it is the place where I feel the most scholarly and comfortable. Each time I would leave invigorated and brimming with ideas. Joining SFIS is an opportunity to have this experience every day and to do it in a place that truly welcomes interdisciplinarity and takes a broad view of innovation, which will allow me to fully embrace the breadth of my research interests,” Jenkins, recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and inducted into the Global Young Academy, is active in Studies in Expertise and Experience, and her research interests include the integration of lay expertise into scientific decision-making and methodologies in marine conservation.

Jennifer Richter, recently a Visiting Assistant Professor in ASU’s School of Social Transformation (SST) and CSPO, will have a shared position with SST as an Assistant Professor and will be teaching a class in Environment and Justice. Her research interests lay at the intersections of science and society, and how federal policies are enacted locally. “I’m very excited to be part of the new School for the Future of Innovation in Society, which promises to be a critical center for exploring the intersections of innovations, policies, and culture,” said Richter who is co-principal investigator on the Socio-Technical Integration Research (STIR) City project, led by SFIS colleague associate professor Erik Fisher, which has recently received a $250,000 award from NSF.

Alumni

The skills and understanding developed through the school’s curriculum are a target of growing demand by employers. Graduates from these programs, which pre-date the school, have channeled these skills into rewarding careers in government, private industry, nonprofit enterprises and academia.

Sharlissa Moore, PhD in Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology (2015) is now an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University, where she has an innovative joint appointment between James Madison College, a residential public affairs college, and the MSU College of Engineering. “The HSD program provided me the flexibility to study the issues I was most passionate about without disciplinary boundaries,” she said, “which positioned me for success in my career in international energy policy.”

After interning in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Spencer Ford, Master of Science and Technology Policy (2013), now works on renewable energy policy as an Incentives Supervisor for SolarCity. Cameron Keys, Master of Science and Technology Policy (2012), received a Presidential Management Fellowship appointment as a Financial Management Analyst for the U.S. Army.

Liz Gray and Greg Woodhead each received an MS in Global Technology and Development (2015). Gray is working in Technical Communications for Braintree. She explains that the GTD program “spoke to my interests and background in technology but focused more on the social, cultural, and economic effects of developments within the industry.” Woodhead works to help refugees with the International Rescue Committee. He says, “The experience of GTD influenced me greatly, and it set me on the course for a lifetime of learning.”

Vision

Director Guston offers a fuller vision for SFIS and how it is poised to help realize the New American University Design Aspirations as outlined by ASU President Michael Crow

More information can be found at sfis.asu.edu.