Jason A. Delborne

Biography

Dr. Jason Delborne  serves as Associate Professor of Science, Policy and Society in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources within the College of Natural Resources. He will also teach and advise students in the NSF-IGERT funded Ph.D. minor program on Genetic Engineering and Society: The Case of Genetic Pest Management. Delborne’s research focuses on highly politicized scientific controversies, such as agricultural biotechnology, nanotechnology, biofuels, and climate change. Drawing upon the highly interdisciplinary field of Science, Technology, and Society (STS), he engages various qualitative research methodologies to ask questions about how policymakers and members of the public interface with controversial science. How we govern, promote, and develop emerging technologies will shape our collective future, and Delborne will contribute to the highly interdisciplinary efforts within GES that engage stakeholders and broader publics to wrestle with such questions.

Delborne previously served on the faculty at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) in the Division of Liberal Arts and International Studies. At CSM he launched an undergraduate minor and graduate certificate in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Policy, acting as the program advisor and delivering the annual capstone course. He also served on the executive committee of an NSF-IGERT funded project in Intelligent Geosystems, coordinating all aspects of social science research and education for doctoral students in engineering and applied sciences. In this role, he advised doctoral students in pursuing STS or policy research questions that would appear as chapters in their otherwise technical dissertations. In a similar vein, he partnered with colleagues from Arizona State University to offer two-week workshops in Washington, D.C. to masters and doctoral students in science and engineering to introduce them to the ways in which science and policy intersect in our nation’s capital. Delborne has published peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Social Studies of Science, Public Understanding of Science, and Science and Public Policy, and he co-edited Controversies in Science and Technology: From Evolution to Energy (Mary Ann Liebert, 2010). In 2010, he received the David Edge Prize, awarded annually by the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) for the best journal article published in the area of science and technology studies. Recognized as an emerging leader in the field of science and technology policy, Delborne was also recently elected to chair the 2016 Gordon Conference on Science and Technology Policy, which brings together leading scholars and practitioners to discuss cutting edge research and contemporary policy challenges.