UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies

Dr Emma Tobin has been awarded an E-Learning Development Grant to support a summer internship at STS. The grant will support a summer intern to work as a Research and Production Assistant for the STS Careers Podcast Series. The work will be undertaken at the STS studio over the summer.  The STS recording Studio in 22 Gordon Square is a significant e-learning environment, which STS as a department is keen to utilise further for student projects, skills development and public engagement. This summer opportunity will allow the student to gain key training in research, recording and post-production. The successful student will also have the opportunity to pass on the skills to other STS students in the academic year 2013/2014 by running a number of small group training workshops. Details on how to apply will be available shortly

3rd Year STS Undergraduate Sinan John Richards (pictured) has been accepted as a speaker at the Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society Postgraduate Conference, which will take place at Middlesex University on 15 June.

Details of the conference can be found online here: http://www.onlinestore.mdx.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&catid=30&modid=5&prodid=147&deptid=11&prodvarid=0

Sinan will present material from his undergraduate dissertation, "Psychoanalysis in Pain?", which explores the journey of the concept of the unconscious across science and philosophy.

Our warmest congratulations to Sinan who worked extremely hard on his dissertation. His efforts are paying off!

Dr Jon Agar has been commended by The British Society for the History of Science for his book, Science in the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Polity, link). 

UCL's Department of Science and Technology Studies seeks to appoint a Research Associate in Cold War History.

On Thursday 30th May UCL STS welcomed Stuart Glennan from Butler University as a visiting academic and held a workshop on Mechanisms and Causality in Philosophy of Science. The event was organised by STS lecturer Phyllis Illari and featured presentations from Stuart Glennan (Butler), John Pemberton (LSE), Toby Field (UCL) as well as STS's  Phyllis Illari and Brendan Clarke.

It's been a great week for STSers on the BBC!

Starting us off we have STS PhD student Mat Paskins spoke at Somerset House for BBC Radio 4's Four Thought series.

Simon Werrett spoke at UCL's new Institute of Making on Friday 19 April about "Material Histories of Science". Werrett asked what a new history of material qualities might look like, and explored the history of that essential academic material - red ink!

UCL's Department of Science and Technology Studies seeks to appoint a full time Senior Lecturer in Science Communication.

On April 4^th 2013, Dr Brian Balmer gave a talk entitled “The Social Dimension of Technology” at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Education and Language, University of La Laguna, Tenerife. The talk was given to staff and students as part of their two day annual research conference and Faculty celebration.

Brian Balmer is to be the co-investigator on an eighteen month project funded by the ESRC and AHRC as a part of their Science and Security Progamme. The project is entitled The Formulation and Non-formulation of Security Concerns:Preventing the Destructive Application of the Life Sciences. The project involves a number of researchers compiling case studies on how security issues become "non-issues" in policy debate about biological weapons control. Brian will contribute a case study on the history of concerns over genetic engineering. The principal investigator on the project is Professor Brian Rappert at the University of Exeter. Ten projects were funded overall, of which two received AHRC support.

The STS Department wishes the UCL Team the very best of luck in their University Challenge semi-final. The team, which includes STS undergraduate Simon Dennis as captain, have battled their way through numerous tricky questions to get to the penultimate round. Get ready to cheer them on!

Every year, we run a course called Action for Global Citizenship HPSC2017A/B. The objective is to get our second-year students to engage with the real world in a different way. Rather than coming to lectures and writing essays, this module asks them to plan and carry out an 'action'. This might be an event, a performance, a thing that they make or build. In the spring term term, our class split into two groups.

Jack Stilgoe was recently a member of an expert group advising the European Commission on approaches to responsible research and innovation. The report looks at options for how science policy can encourage greater responsibility for the direction and broad implications of scientific research and innovation. This report has been covered in this week's Research Europe http://www.researchprofessional.com/news/article/1313166/. In the story, Jack is quoted as saying that “RRI is a new term to describe a set of old concepts… RRI is about getting more from science and innovation, not just stopping certain things that we find troubling.”

STS Lecturer Simon Werrett spoke in Rome on March 15 on the relations of technology and religion in the early modern period, beginning (appropriately in light of recent events at the Vatican) with an exploration of fireworks staged for the election of a new Pope in Rome in the sixteenth century. The talk was part of a conference examining the role of stage machinery, spectacle and theatre in religious festivals and practices in early modern Europe.

Congratulations to STS BSc student Simon Dennis and the rest of the UCL University Challenge Team. Yesterday the team beat the University of Manchester in their second quarter final round draw to go through to semi finals.

STS Research Fellow, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock (MBE) has been mentioned by UCL Provost in his 04 March 2013 newsletter:

Above average teaching

UCL Natural Sciences programme has released data from Term 1 teaching in modules taken by first year students. STS scores above average, largely due to the efforts of Dr Simon Lock and Dr Brendan Clarke. Well done. 

A team of UCL graduate students including STS PhD Student Steph Ratcliffe have been selected to organise 11th annual masterclass for the British Postgraduate Philosophy Association. The team, which also includes Akosua Bonsu, Emily Crampton from the UCL Philosophy Department will host the event at UCL on 14 and 15th of April 2013. The masterclass will explore issues around Philosophy and Mental Health. More details on the event website.

Final year students - it's time to have your say about your degree. The National Student Survey (NSS) is now open. This is an opportunity to speak up confidentially in a nationwide poll about universities. The data from the NSS feeds into government statistics about courses and affects how your degree is represented to potential employers and future students.

Last term recently arrived STS lecturer Jack Stilgoe launched a new course ‘Governing emerging technologies’ for UCL 3rd year undergraduates (HPSC3036). As well as the usual essay, the 24 students from STS and across UCL taking the cousre were asked to put together a course blog, in which they would explore issues to do with emerging technologies. Case studies and literatures were discussed in class, but the idea with the blog was that the students would dig into their own examples. Jack asked the creators of the best ones if they would agree to have theirs aired publicly and you can find the results on his blog.

Episode 6 of Thinking about Science is now available on soundcloud:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/engage_academics/thinkingaboutscience

STS History and Philosophy of Science gradaute Charlotte Connelly - who now works for London's Science Museum will be appearing in Episode 3 of the BBC's Genius of Invention Series on Thursday 7th February.

On 25/26 January 2013 Simon Werrett presented a paper at the conference “Oceanic Enterpise: Location, Longitude and Maritime Cultures, 1770-1830” held at the Huntington Library in California. Werrett’s contribution explored the history of navigation techniques in the Russian navy during this period, and the interactions of Russian and British circumnavigators and men of science.

On Monday, UCL Science & Technology Studies held a panel discussion on the question of "Will the geek inherit the earth?" This was prompted by a recent book by Mark Henderson, former Science Editor of the Times and now Head of Communications at the Wellcome Trust.

Congratulations to UCL's University Challenge Team, captained by STS student Simon Dennis for another magnificent win on BBC's University Challenge! The UCL Team are now through to the quarter finals. Woohoo!