The Institute for Science, Society and Policy is a cross-faculty Institute at the University of Ottawa exploring the links between science, society and policy.

About

The Fulbright Visiting Research Chairs enable promising and prominent American scholars, as well as experienced professionals to conduct research, develop collaborations, guest lecture and/or teach at select Canadian universities and research centers, normally for one semester, though this may be extended to a full academic year.

As of September 2014, a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair will contribute to the activities of the Science, Society and Policy Network of the University of Ottawa and be housed at the ISSP. The chairholder will have the opportunity to interact with faculty members from a number of different faculties (Arts, Engineering, Law, Management, Medicine, Science and Social Science) and participate in projects concerned with policy to enhance S&T innovation, science/policy integration, and the governance of emerging technologies. The location in Ottawa in combination with the ISSP network will enable the chairholder to address joint U.S. – Canada interests, bilateral activities, and carry out comparative analyses. The chairholder will also contribute to the development of the emerging graduate program of the ISSP in the social and policy dimensions of S&T innovation and contribute to major activities such as the conference “Science and Society 2013: Emerging Agendas for Citizens and the Sciences” and the International Bromley Lecture and Event (in collaboration with George Washington University).

Past Fulbright Research Chairs

Dr. Aleta Quinn Headshot

Aleta Quinn

Dr. Aleta Quinn, Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Science and Society, researches the relationships among science, social values, and objectivity. Views that separate the domains of science from social policy and social values are no longer tenable. New understandings are needed to clarify the ways in which value-questions relate to scientific questions. In particular, Quinn’s research focuses on the sciences that concern biodiversity, and on distinct forms of citizen-science.

Quinn comes to us from the University of Idaho, where she is Associate Professor of Philosophy. She holds a PhD in history and philosophy of science from the University of Pittsburgh, and a BA in philosophy and BS in biology from the University of Maryland. Her previous positions include fellowships at the Smithsonian Institution, the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Studies, and California Institute of Technology.

Her most recent project applies existing models of objectivity in science, developed by philosophers of science, to case studies in citizen science. The application reveals challenges, suggesting that the existing models must be adapted or replaced. The models of objectivity conceive of science as a social enterprise, breaking down a problematic dichotomy between social and rational; yet they do not sufficiently scrutinize the concept of a unified community of science that can readily be distinguished from communities external to science.

Chelsea Schelly

Chelsea Schelly

Dr. Chelsea Schelly is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University. She received her PhD from the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013. Her work is inspired by the belief that the technological systems used to sustain residential life structure how humans conceive of their relationship to the natural world and to one another.

Dr. Schelly's research explores socio-technological system interactions that shape human conceptions of nature, relationships among humans and between humans and non-humans, and human thought and action. It examines the historical normalization of residential technological systems in America and the ways in which alternative technological systems challenge the social, political, economic, and environmental consequences of those systems.

Gwen Ottinger

Gwen Ottinger

Gwen Ottinger is Associate Professor at Drexel University, in the Department of Politics and the Center for Science, Technology, and Society. She directs the Fair Tech Collective, a research group that uses social science theory and methods to promote social justice in science and technology. She has received a CAREER award from the U.S. National Science Foundation for her research on “Environmental Justice and the Ethics of Science and Technology,” and the 2015 Rachel Carson Prize from the Society for Social Studies of Science for her book, Refining Expertise: How Responsible Engineers Subvert Environmental Justice Challenges.

Ottinger is an ACLS-Burkhardt Fellow and was a 2020-2021 Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Her commentary and analysis has been featured in The Washington Post, the Contra Costa Times, Issues in Science and Technology, and Undark, and she is working on a new book, Mending Fencelines: How Science Can Enhance Social Justice.

Michael Carolan

Michael Carolan

Dr. Carolan is a Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Affairs for the College of Liberal Arts at the Colorado State University. Other appointments include Professor of Political Science (Status-Only), University of Toronto, Canada and Research Affiliate, Centre for Sustainability, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. He has published over 200 peer review articles and chapters. His areas of expertise include environmental and agricultural law and policy, environmental sociology, the sociology of food systems and agriculture, economic sociology, and the sociology of technology and scientific knowledge. 

Additionally, Dr. Carolan regularly writes pieces for public audiences, as he works to bridge the town-gown divide. His pieces regularly appear in such outlets asThe ConversationBloombergMarket WatchMental FlossBusiness InsiderAlternetWorld Economic ForumHouston ChronicleBangor Daily NewsSan Francisco ChronicleSeattle PostPopular ScienceThe Smithsonian MagazineSalonThe IndependentMarket WatchScroll.in, and New Food Economy (some of these articles have registered over 150,000 reads!). He also routinely makes radio and television appearances around the world, having been featured on the popular CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Cooperation) program Ideas, NPRRadio New Zealand, andTVNZ-One (TV New Zealand).

Lundy Lewis

Lundy Lewis

Dr. Lewis is a former Christos and Mary Papoutsy Distinguished Chair in Ethics and Social Responsibility at Southern New Hampshire University in the US. He is a Professor of Computer Information Systems with research interests in applied artificial intelligence, social robots, and human-robot interaction. Dr. Lewis infuses his lectures with real-world examples and invites industry experts to help students prepare for information-technology careers. He also teaches courses on game design and digital music.

He holds thirty-seven US patents and has published three books on applications of AI in network and service management. He received a PhD in Philosophy with a concentration in logic and AI at the University of Georgia, an MS in Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a BA in Mathematics and BS in Philosophy at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Lewis will use humanoid robots to help enhance the social skills of young subjects with autism and other cognitive/emotional deficits. He will design human-robot interaction protocols to encourage essential, foundational social skills such as joint attention and turn-taking. Subjects will be gauged on their improvements over time both within therapy sessions and in common activities outside the sessions.

He has participated in research awards from the Small Business Innovative Research program in the US government and the Australian Research Council on topics in cyber-security and enterprise management. Dr. Lewis has an entrepreneurial bent and has co-founded start-up companies in video game development, cybersecurity, and smart appliances.

Jennifer Kuzma

Jennifer Kuzma

Jennifer Kuzma is the Goodnight-NCGSK Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs, and co-director of the Genetic Engineering and Society Center, at North Carolina State University.  Prior to this, she was associate professor of science and technology policy at the University of Minnesota (2003-2013); study director at the U.S. National Academies of Science (NAS) (1999-2003); and an AAAS Risk Policy Fellow at the USDA (1997-1999).

She has over 100 scholarly publications on emerging technologies and governance and has been studying this area for over 25 years. She as held several other leadership positions, including a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Committee on Preparing for Future Biotechnology, Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) Council Member and Secretary, Chair of the Gordon Conference on Science & Technology Policy, Member of the US FDA Blood Products Advisory Committee, and a Member of the UN WHO-FAO Expert Group for Nanotechnologies in Food and Agriculture.

In 2014, she received the SRA Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer Award for recognition of her outstanding contributions to the field of risk analysis. She is cited and interviewed frequently in the media for her expertise in biotechnology policy, including the New York Times, Science, Nature, NPR, Washington Post, Scientific American, The Boston Globe, PBS Nova, Wired, and ABC & NBC News.

Dee Williams

Dee Williams

Dr. Dee Williams lives in Anchorage, Alaska, where he currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Alaska Regional Office of the US Geological Survey—the science agency of the US Department of the Interior. Over the last 15 years, he has worked in close coordination with resource management agencies and stakeholder groups in the Arctic to plan, design, and direct a wide range of physical, biological, and social research to monitor and mitigate impacts from energy sector development and ongoing climate change. He holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, with particular research expertise in resource management challenges involving indigenous communities throughout the Pacific Rim. Prior to government service, he earned multiple degrees from Columbia University in the City of New York, and worked as a professor and consultant to international development organizations. He has published numerous books and articles in the field of environmental anthropology, and serves on multiple Board of Directors and Technical Steering Committees concerned with the advancement of Arctic science.

Nigel Cameron

Nigel Cameron

President Emeritus of the Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies, Washington, DC

Nigel Cameron is President Emeritus of the Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies in Washington, DC; in 2015-16 he was Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Science and Society at the University of Ottawa’s Institute for Science, Society and Policy. He has written widely on technology, health, and ethics. In 2007 he was the U.S. Government’s (unsuccessful) nominee to be United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Right to Health. He is currently working on a biography of C. Everett Koop, U.S. Surgeon-General from 1981-89, who lead America’s response to the AIDS pandemic.

E-mail: nigel.m.cameron@gmail.com

Wendell Wallach

Wendell Wallach

Dr. Wallach is a consultant, ethicist and scholar at Yale University's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics. He is also a scholar with the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics (Arizona State University), a Fellow at the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technology, and a visiting scholar at The Hastings Center. He is also the author of several books and articles relating to technology and applied ethics, including most recently A Dangerous Master: How to Prevent Technology From Slipping Beyond Our Control.

Tee Guidotti

Tee Guidotti

Dr. Guidotti has had a long and diverse career as a physician, professor of public health and medicine, and international consultant.  His core field of expertise is occupational and environmental medicine.  He has had a career spanning four decades in clinical medicine, public health teaching and practice, environmental protection and research.  Dr. Guidotti is the recipient of the William S. Knudsen Award for Lifetime Achievement in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, a co-founder of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, the President-Elect for Sigma-Xi (starting July 2015) and Chair of the Expert Panel on wind turbine noise and human health of the Council of Canadian Academies.