The Genetic Engineering and Society Center serves as a hub of interdisciplinary research, engaged scholarship, and inclusive dialogues. Positioned at the nexus of science and technology, the social sciences and humanities, the GES Center has taken a national and international lead in examining the technical, ethical, and societal dimensions of the products and impacts of biotechnology.
As the world faces the unprecedented challenges presented by COVID-19 pandemic, many of our faculty, staff, and students have redirected their efforts to help combat the crisis. See below for resources related to the societal and policy dimensions of COVID, biotechnological aspects of testing and vaccination, and food and agricultural policy.
Related:
GES Co-director Fred Gould joins 20 authors calling for continuous, low-key, rigorous efforts to build a more resilient agricultural system in the US that would be buffered against unpredictable incidents like COVID19
Blog: COVID-19 Reveals the Personal Side of Globalization – GM Researchers Should Take Note
Nora Haenn, 5/20/2020 | COVID-19 has shown us, there’s an important consequence for the way globalization is both local at all points and persistently invisible in its entirety.
Blog: Yes, and…
Royden Saah and Eli Hornstein, 4/22/2020 | To counter the COVID-19 pandemic, YES we can be responsible AND take urgent, unfamiliar action.
COVID-19—Biotechnology Is Never Enough
The currently-unfolding COVID-19 case boldly underscores the reality that science and technology are never enough to solve global health problems alone. Rather, we need a strategic and systematic integration of social sciences, risk sciences, and communication along with science, technology, and innovation to adequately meet the challenges of emerging global risks, such as COVID-19.
Presentations
GES Colloquium presentations are also available on the GES Center Lectures Podcast
- Video: COVID-19’s Global Impact: Interdisciplinary perspectives from inside GES, looking out, GES Colloquium, April 21, 2020
- Video: Jean Goodwin – Scientists’ Responsibilities in the Public Sphere: the Case of COVID Mask Recommendations, GES Colloquium, April 7, 2020
- Video: Risk Analysis Perspectives on COVID-19 Outbreak, Christopher Cummings at the Society for Risk Analysis, March 10, 2020
- Podcast: COVID-19 Impacts on Risk Research, Khara Grieger on SRA Let’s Talk Risk, May 28, 2020
- Podcast: Royden Saah on Health Preparedness and Crisis Management, on Guys Who Do Stuff, April 13, 2020
- Podcast: Influence: What has COVID-19 taught us about risk communication?, Christopher Cummings on Your Money with Michelle Martin, February 26, 2020
Experts
Faculty and scholars from the GES Center are available to speak with media and researchers about the wide-ranging effects of COVID-19 on our world.
Economic Analysis
Zack Brown is an assistant professor of environmental and resource economics who has worked on individual behavior, public policy, decision analysis and benefit-cost assessment of transmissible disease control. He can be reached at zsbrown2@ncsu.edu.
Risk and Epidemic Communication
Christopher Cummings is a Senior Research Fellow with the GES Center (formerly Assistant Professor of Strategic Communication at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) and specializes in data-driven public health decision-making and risk communication. He currently is collaborating on a COVID-19 task force with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to build predictive models for allocating national resources to areas of imminent need. He can discuss risk communication, public understanding of science and risk, and modeling approaches under uncertainty in relation to COVID-19. He can be reached at clcummin@ncsu.edu.
Risk Governance and Decision-Making
Khara Grieger is a Senior Research Scholar with the GES Center and specializes in risk assessment and governance of new and emerging risks. She can provide guidance on best practices related to governing emerging risks of COVID-19, comprised of diverse approaches to understand, manage, and communicate the emerging risk issues to diverse audiences. She can be reached at 919-515-2594 or kdgriege@ncsu.edu.
Open Source COVID19 Medical Supplies
Eli Hornstein is an AgBioFEWS fellow involved in efforts based at NC State and elsewhere to produce medical equipment through 3D printing and other rapid manufacturing technologies. He can discuss design, safety, and supply considerations for these projects, as well as the current state of supply chains and organizations in this space. He can be reached at 919-332-6193 or edhornst@ncsu.edu.
Open Science and Biosafety
Todd Kuiken is a Senior Research Scholar with the GES Center and can provide guidance on open science COVID-19 initiatives operating outside traditional norms and institutions and the associated ethical, safety and governance issues. Todd serves on the biosafety advisory board of the OpenCovid19 Initiative. He can be reached at 919-515-2593 or tkuiken@ncsu.edu.
Science and Technology Policy
Jennifer Kuzma is the Goodnight-NC GSK Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs and Co-director of GES Center. Jennifer is available to discuss integrated biotechnology/regulatory policy, risk and decision analysis, and societal response. She can be reached at jkuzma@ncsu.edu.
Disease Modeling
Alun Lloyd is the Drexel Professor of Mathematics and a mathematical biologist. He can speak to the accuracy of models of disease spread. He can be reached at alun_lloyd@ncsu.edu.
Pandemic Emergency Response
Royden Saah is a Visiting Scholar with the GES Center and can discuss emergency pandemic preparation and response, crisis management, and laboratory biosafety protocols. He can be reached at jrsaah@ncsu.edu.
Full list of GES Faculty