Sheila Jasanoff is the Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she founded and directs the STS Program. Previously, she was the founding chair of the STS Department at Cornell University. She holds AB, JD, and PhD degrees from Harvard University, along with honorary doctorates from the Universities of Twente and Liège. Current Position: Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies (2002-present) Previous Position: Professor of Science Policy and Law at Cornell University (1991-1998) Education: AB (Mathematics) from Radcliffe College, PhD (Linguistics) and JD from Harvard University Professor Jasanoff's research explores the role of science and technology in the law, politics, and policy of modern democracies, with particular attention to environmental and biotechnology regulation in Europe and the U.S. She is a pioneer in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), having authored over 130 articles and chapters and written or edited more than 15 books, including The Fifth Branch , Science at the Bar , Designs on Nature , The Ethics of Invention , and Can Science Make Sense of Life? Her recent scholarly work focuses on climate communication, genome editing ethics, and the integration of STS perspectives into engineering and public policy. Jasanoff's publications demonstrate a consistent engagement with how different societies conceptualize scientific knowledge and incorporate it into governance structures, with particular attention to sociotechnical imaginaries and civic epistemologies. Holberg Prize (2022), often dubbed the 'Nobel Prize for social science and humanities' SSRC's Hirschman Prize Humboldt Foundation's Reimar-Lüst Award Guggenheim Fellowship Ehrenkreuz from the Government of Austria Foreign memberships in the British Academy and the Royal Danish Academy Jasanoff has served on the AAAS Board of Directors and as President of the Society for Social Studies of Science. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Her sponsored projects include the Global Observatory on Genome Editing funded by the John Templeton Foundation and Belmont Forum Collaborative Research on Governance of Sociotechnical Transformations funded by the National Science Foundation. She has held distinguished visiting appointments at leading universities worldwide and serves on numerous scientific advisory boards including at the Holberg Foundation, National Academy of Sciences, and University of Cambridge.
