[Sci-tech-public] STS Circle, October 7 - Adam Bly (Please RSVP)

[STS]

STS Circle at Harvard
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Adam Bly
Seed Media Group

on
A New Narrative for Science in America

Monday, October 7
12:15-2:00 pm
Maxwell Dworkin, 33 Oxford Street, Room 119

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Lunch is provided if you RSVP.
Please RSVP to sts<mailto:sts at hks.harvard.edu>@hks.harvard.edu<mailto:sts at hks.harvard.edu> by 5pm Wednesday, October 2.

Abstract: The output of science now affects us individually and globally on a daily basis, and the complex nature of various national and global concerns necessitates the tools and methods of science to navigate. Despite various efforts and campaigns over several decades to raise “public understanding of science” and “public engagement with science,” 4 out of 5 Americans do not understand what a scientific study is (NSF). This is an inarguable failure of society at large. As we become increasingly science-dependent, our scientific illiteracy threatens the competitiveness, security, economy, and perhaps most alarmingly, democracy of the United States as well as the capacity of the world to wrestle with various critical challenges. Although difficult to draw a causal relationship, one could argue that our inability to pass legislation based on obvious scientific merit is partially the result of broad-based misunderstanding of science itself. The pervasive and crippling “culture war” between faith and reason is, one could similarly argue, fueled by the absence of appropriately humble claims and definitions (from both sides). For the sake of progress and harmony in the 21st century, we urgently need to architect and disseminate a new narrative for science. I will share ongoing work and thinking to this effect.



Biography:  Adam Bly is Visiting Senior Fellow at Kennedy School in the Program on Science, Technology & Society. With a mission of modernizing science’s place in society, he created Seed Magazine as well as ScienceBlogs and Visualizing. He is currently CEO of Seed Scientific, a global consultancy working to advance scientific thinking and data-driven decision-making in the commercial, public, and social sectors. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and is a recipient of the Golden Jubilee Medal from Queen Elizabeth II. He has lectured widely on the role of science in modern society, including at the: World Economic Forum in Davos, Royal Society, Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, STS Forum, Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, National Academies of Science, National Science Board, U.S Department of State, U.S. House of Representatives, NIH, NASA, and Museum of Modern Art, as well as at universities including Harvard, MIT, and Peking. He serves as Vice Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Complex Systems, and member of the Science Advisory Committee of the World Economic Forum, the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on the State of Canada’s Science Culture, and the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science. He advised the Executive Coordinator’s Office of Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, and OECD’s Global Project on Measuring the Progress of Societies, and is currently advising the United Nations Millennium Campaign on data-driven decision-making around the Post-2015 Millennium Development Goals. He is the editor of Science is Culture: Conversations at the New Intersection of Science + Society (HarperCollins). He began his career studying cell adhesion and cancer metastasis at the National Research Council of Canada. Born in Montreal, he now lives in New York City.




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