Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values

Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values is an interdisciplinary research center located within a major American university that focuses on the intersections among scientific practice, technological innovation, and societal values. The Center convenes scholars, practitioners, and policy actors to examine the ethical, historical, philosophical, and policy dimensions of Albert Einstein, Rosalind Franklin, Alan Turing, Marie Curie, and Rachel Carson-era transformations, while engaging with contemporary actors such as Tim Berners-Lee, Elon Musk, Jennifer Doudna, Satoshi Nakamoto, and Fei-Fei Li. Its work spans collaboration with academic units and external institutions including National Academy of Sciences, Smithsonian Institution, Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and World Economic Forum.

History and Mission

The Center traces its origins to advisory initiatives that brought together faculty influenced by the legacies of Thomas Kuhn, Karl Popper, Paul Feyerabend, Imre Lakatos, and John Dewey to respond to debates stirred by cases like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl disaster, Human Genome Project, CRISPR–Cas9, and Deepwater Horizon. Founding benefactors referenced public intellectuals such as Jonas Salk, Vannevar Bush, Ada Lovelace, Norbert Wiener, and Claude Shannon when articulating commitments to inquiry on the ethics of technology, the history of science, and the role of values in scientific judgment. Mission statements reflect influences from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, National Science Foundation, Royal Society, European Commission, and American Association for the Advancement of Science in emphasizing rigorous interdisciplinary scholarship and public engagement. The Center’s goals include producing scholarship that dialogues with institutions like International Court of Justice, World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations, and Council of Europe on responsible innovation.

Research and Programs

Research programs at the Center operate across thematic clusters inspired by exemplars such as Louis Pasteur, Gregor Mendel, Max Planck, Niels Bohr, and James Watson. Active programs include studies in the history of laboratory practice informed by archives related to HMS Beagle, Manhattan Project, Apollo program, and Polio vaccine efforts; ethical analyses of emerging technologies in dialogue with deliberations from European Medicines Agency, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, International Criminal Court, and International Telecommunication Union; and policy-oriented projects referencing reports from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, International Energy Agency, World Bank, and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Collaborative initiatives partner with centers and institutes such as Hoover Institution, Berkman Klein Center, Kennedy School, Oxford Internet Institute, and Max Planck Institute to study governance of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and environmental technologies. Postdoctoral fellowships and visiting scholar programs have hosted researchers associated with Princeton University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Cambridge.

Education and Outreach

Educational activities blend pedagogies influenced by curricula at Yale University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, Brown University, and Duke University, offering seminars, certificate programs, and joint appointments across departments such as those linked with Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, California Institute of Technology, and University of Oxford. Outreach partnerships extend to museums and public platforms like American Philosophical Society, Museum of Science and Industry, Science Museum, London, National Air and Space Museum, and Field Museum to translate scholarship for broader publics. The Center’s mentorship and internship networks connect students to internships at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, European Space Agency, and NASA to apply ethical frameworks and historical perspectives in professional contexts. Programs also engage civil society and industry partners including Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Microsoft Research, Google, and IBM Research.

Events and Conferences

The Center convenes regular events modeled on international forums like Davos Conference, St. Gallen Symposium, Berkshire Conference, and Poetry and Climate-style gatherings, featuring keynote speakers drawn from the ranks of Noam Chomsky, Margaret Atwood, Yuval Noah Harari, Nadine Strossen, and Cornel West. Annual conferences address themes such as responsible innovation, historical case studies in crisis and change, and comparative governance, often co-sponsored with entities like American Historical Association, Philosophy of Science Association, Society for Social Studies of Science, and International Sociological Association. Workshops targeted at policymakers bring together experts from White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, U.S. Congress, House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Public lecture series have featured panels with guests affiliated with Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Turing Award, MacArthur Fellowship, and Templeton Prize laureates.

Publications and Contributions

The Center publishes working papers, edited volumes, and peer-reviewed articles in venues connected to presses and journals such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, MIT Press, Nature, Science, The Lancet, Philosophy of Science, Isis (journal), and Social Studies of Science. Edited series highlight scholarship on case studies involving Sputnik crisis, Salk vaccine, Haitian cholera outbreak, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, and Arab Spring impacts on technology. Policy briefs and white papers have informed decision-making at World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, UNESCO, European Parliament, and U.S. Department of State. The Center’s alumni and affiliates include scholars who have taken positions at institutions such as Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, Yale School of Medicine, Harvard Kennedy School, and London School of Economics, extending the Center’s influence across scholarly, policy, and public spheres.

Category:Research institutes