Biotechnology Lecture Series at UC Davis

A major public lecture series, Biotechnology, Policy, and Society, is bringing 10 internationally recognized experts to the University of California, Davis to explore what modern biotechnology means to society. The series began in October and continues through early March.

Biotechnology has stimulated public debate over the potential benefits and risks of these new technologies as applied in food and fiber production, medicine and manufacturing.

“Intentionally or not, by adopting new technologies we make choices about the future,” says John Hall, a UC Davis sociology professor and director of the campus’s Center for History, Society, and Culture, which organized the series. “The series is meant to provide a forum for public discussion of the issues, based on the best information available.”

Jenny Broome, SAREP associate director, served on the committee which recommended the speakers.

The first lecture featured James Cook, of Washington State University and Rebecca Goldburg, of Environmental Defense. The first November lecture featured David Botstein, from the genetics department at Stanford University and Brian Wynne, of the Centre for Science Studies, Lancaster University, United Kingdom. Other speakers include:

• Nov. 30: Peter Kareiva, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “Ecological Risks and GMOs: How Science, Government and Policy Makers, and Language Fail Us”; and Arthur L. Reingold, Division of Public Health Biology and Epidemiology, UC Berkeley, “Can Epidemiologists Detect Adverse Effects of GMOs on Human Health?”
  
• Jan. 18: Rebecca Nelson, International Potato Center, Lima, Peru, “Gene Flow and Information Flow: On Biotechnology and Sustainable Food Production in Poor Countries.”
  
• Feb. 1: Rebecca Eisenberg, School of Law, University of Michigan, “Is the Patent System Ready for the Genome?”
  
• Feb. 15: Walter W. Powell, School of Education and Department of Sociology, Stanford University, “Universities as Creators and Retailers of Intellectual Property.”
  
• March 1: Richard Lewontin, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, “The Struggle Over Biotechnology, the Last Stage in a Cultural War.”

The free lectures are being presented at 7:30 p.m. in the Alpha Gamma Rho Room of the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. For more information, see the Center for History, Society, and Culture’s Web site at:
http://chsc.ucdavis.edu/Main-aboutCHSC.html.

Additional support for the lecture series was provided by the UC Davis Office of the Provost, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the Office of University Outreach and International Programs, and the Social Science Division of the College of Letters and Science.