Socially-Directed Science and Technology: Design at the Intersection of History, Sustainability, and Equity with Applications to Biotechnology and Biomaterials

About this Seminar

Socially-directed science and technology is an education and research model which seeks to reimagine the fundamental processes of research and development in order to redirect the trajectories of science and technology towards more impactful, sustainable, and equitable outcomes. Socially-directed science and technology intentionally aims to holistically integrate frameworks, knowledge, concepts, and methodologies from science and technology disciplines with humanistic fields and the social sciences in order to interrogate, understand, and influence decision-making in an iterative and reflexive manner throughout the entire process of research and development, in particular at the earliest stages. Trans-disciplinary integration of knowledge draws upon scholarship related to sociotechnical systems, material cultures, historical analysis and thinking, environmental and social in/justice and equity-based design, sustainability, life cycle, and circular design, ethical reasoning in social context, and futures literacy. Emergent materials technologies, design, and fabrication capabilities, in particular biomaterials and biomedical materials, will be considered including the integration of multiscale computational materials design based on physicochemical laws) with artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML) and additive manufacturing, which holds potential for accelerating biocompatibility and bioactivity.

Additional Details

This is a free event hosted by Dr. Michael Friedlander and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. For more information, please call 540-526-2059.

About Maury Strauss

Maury Strauss is a longtime community benefactor and businessman who supports biomedical research with the goal of energizing the local economy and improving quality of life in our neighborhoods and around the world. In order to ensure the continued success of Roanoke’s biomedical research enterprise, as well as the free public seminars, Mr. Strauss has made a generous gift to the series. Read More.

Support Our Research

Your generous support of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute's rigorous biomedical research enterprise makes a difference for our faculty, students, and patients. Every donation helps accelerate the pace of new discoveries to help patients with cancer, neurological disorders, heart disease, and even rare genetic disorders. Private donations fast-track our progress. 

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