Social and Ethical Implications of Nanotechnology (SEIN)

Gender and Nano Workshop

The NSF-sponsored Gender & Nano Workshop was held over 1 ½ days on May 12 & 13, 2011 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) headquarters in Washington D.C. The goals of the sessions were to provide a format for lively and candid discussion and to produce a document that provides a consensus of opinion for future directions in research pertaining to participation of women of all ethnicities and backgrounds in NT/NS fields.

The participants addressed the following research questions:

    1. What are the career pathways for women faculty in NT/NS? Do women of color follow different career pathways?
    2. What are the specific challenges or barriers women face in NT/NS? And, were these different from other STEM women scientists? Are the specific challenges women of color face different than other women?
    3. Did the scientists have mentors in undergraduate, graduate or post-docs? How has mentoring impacted their career?
    4. Do the scientists believe that there are effective interventions that would facilitate the careers of women faculty in NT/NS? If so, what are they?

Post-workshop findings can be found here and survey results can be found here. To learn more about the SEIN research project, refer to our SEIN Research page.

The Gender and Nano workshop was recently discussed in an article in NANO NEWS & VIEWS. The article can be found here.

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Nanoethics on the World Wide Web: Helping Faculty Enhance Graduate Education

Funded in 2008 by the National Science Foundation and building on CWD’s related nanotechnology research through the NNIN since 2004, this project involved developing a comprehensive, multifaceted web resource for faculty to utilize in incorporating social and ethical issues in nanotechnology (SEIN) as well as hosting an international symposium on Nanoethics held in 2009.

The primary goals of this project were to:

    • Bring awareness to the importance of ethics training for the emerging nanotechnology workforce.
    • Provide faculty with free access to instructional materials available in multiple formats.
    • Encourage graduate students to gain an appreciation of the application of ethics training in their everyday research activities as well as the larger implications of their research.
    • Provide a centralized resource for Nanoethics teaching materials.

This web-based resource provides faculty with a variety of ways to incorporate Nanoethics training into their curriculum. Presentations from the 2009 Nanoethics Graduate Education Symposium will be recorded and edited to create 15-minute modules that can be downloaded or streamed via the internet. A seminar course held at the University of Washington developed case studies of nanotechnology ethics to describe real world situations that graduate students may be confronted with in the course of their research (see case studies). Furthermore, resources from around the web have been compiled for easy access to additional material (see resources).

Through a University of Washington Nanoethics seminar students developed case studies under supervision of trained faculty. The case studies address social and ethical issues related to nanotechnologies and nanoscience through realistic scenarios and real-life examples. The case studies can be used for creating discussion, debate, and learning about ethical and social implications related to nanotechnology and work well as a stand-alone lesson or incorporated into existing curriculum. Finally, nine original commissioned papers on social and ethical considerations related to Nanotechnology and nanoscience are also available on this website.

Publications
    • Allen, E. E. & Bassett, D. R. (2008). Listen Up! The Need for Public Engagement in Nanoscale Science and Technology. Nanotechnology Law and Business, 5(4): 429-439.
    • Bassett, D. (2005). “Nanoscience and nanotechnology: An overview.” (Posted on the NNIN Website)

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