 In 2005, a five-year $16 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and an additional $7 million in university and state funding established the Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing (CHM) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The Science, Technology and Society (STS) Initiative shares in this award and is an active partner in the CHM.
The CHM award has spawned the STS Initiative’s Nanoscience and Society Research Group (NanoSRG). NanoSRG brings together faculty from five research centers and seven degree-granting departments and programs within the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and includes faculty from political science, sociology, economics, psychology, anthropology, communication, legal studies, natural resources conservation and history. NanoSRG faculty are engaged with several dimensions of the societal implications of nanotechnology including:
- the organization and economics of the nanotechnology research and development enterprise
- public perception of nanotechnology, where expectations for legitimacy and public opinion formation regarding risk are paramount
- technological innovation and effective dispute resolution, where costs of delay are minimized, yet property interests and important values are protected
- visual perception of nanoscale phenomena and implications for instrumentation design.
Please visit our Projects page for more details on each of our nano projects.
Through the NSF grant, the NanoSRG is also planning three workshops to address the societal implications of nanotechnology. More information on our workshops is available here.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0531171.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
For additional STS Research Clusters, visit our Research Page.
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