Societies around the world seek to ensure that science and technology continue to provide solutions to social, economic, health, and environmental challenges while minimizing potential risks. The science & technology (S&T) policy concentration at Georgia Tech's School of Public Policy offers students the opportunity to learn how this is done. Students will study how countries around the world build and sustain a highly skilled technical workforce, maintain a vital research and development enterprise, facilitate the translation of research into commercial realities, and incorporate public views into decisions around innovation and regulation.

The context for research and innovation is ever changing, with shifts in social, demographic, and economic structures, rapid technological development, increased globalization of S&T, greater environmental concerns, and ongoing debate about the best way to achieve society's overall goals. This is a dynamic area of study, and the professors at Georgia Tech, through their strong research profile, are key players in defining the future of the scholarly field and advising agencies and organizations on their policies. To further advance the field, every two years we convene leading scholars from around the world to explore the research frontier together and debate current issues at our Atlanta S&T Policy Conference. Our students participate in the discussion. We are also engaged with colleagues and organizations around the nation and world, providing our students opportunities to work on nationally and globally oriented research projects and to spend semesters abroad studying S&T policy, particularly in European countries.

Students in the science and technology policy concentration address such issues as:

• How did science and innovation first become a concern of our government? And how have we arrived where we are today?

• How are new technologies regulated and for whose benefit?

• How is nanotechnology evolving?

• What challenges will new biotechnologies present?

• How does gender affect the scientific workforce and workplace, and the innovation produced there?

• The scientific and engineering career path is a difficult one -- how is it structured and how can we help more people succeed?

• How have countries fostered high-tech industries?

• How does university research make an impact on commercial reality?

• How do countries handle ethically controversial areas of research?

• How do governments and firms measure and evaluate their research and innovation activities?

• How important is geography to research and innovation success?

• Although we hope to use science to improve our lives, benefits can be unevenly distributed. How can this be improved?

Students in the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy can pursue concentrations in science and technology policy in the Masters of Science in Public Policy (MSPP), the Georgia Tech Ph.D. in Public Policy, and the Joint Ph.D. (Georgia Tech-Georgia State University) in Public Policy. Undergraduate students can pursue science and technology policy as one of their clusters.

Faculty

* Names are listed in alphabetical order

Dr. Richard Barke
Dr. Roberta Berry
Dr. Justin Biddle
Dr. Dan Breznitz, INTA
Dr. Shiri Breznitz
Dr. Jennifer Clark
Dr. Susan Cozzens
Dr. Mary Frank Fox
Dr. Diana Hicks
Dr. Gordon Kingsley
Dr. Cheryl Leggon
Dr. Aaron Levine
Dr. Julia Melkers
Dr. Juan Rogers
Dr. Philip Shapira
Dr. John Walsh

Undergraduate Courses in S&T Policy

Courses currently taught as special topics:

Stem Cell Science, Ethics and Policy
Science, Technology, and Regulation
Biotechnology Law, Policy & Ethics
Biomedical Law, Policy & Ethics

• PST 3127C Science,Technology & Human Values
  Exploresthe boundaries between science, religion, and social values, examining science and technology in a broader social context. Examines claims that science is isolated from social problems and values.
• PST 4174 - Perspectives-Science & Technology
  Comparative analysis of frameworks for interpreting science and technology, discussed in light of case studies. Selected frameworks include philosophical, historical, cognitive, and sociological.
• PUBP 4214 - Gender, Science, Technology & Public Policy
  The connections between gender, science, and technology, and issues of public policy
• PUBP 4410 - Science, Technology & Public Policy - Examination of relationships between science, technology, and government, and their mutual influence on public and private decisions.
• PUBP 4414 - Technology, Innovation & Policy
  Theories and concepts of technological innovation and diffusion, economic development, and the role of public and private institutions in technological development at the firm, industry, regional, national, and international levels.
• PUBP 4416 - Critical Issues in Science & Technology
  Exploration of technology and technological society, going beyond utility and functionality to consider justice, meaningfulness, and self-realization. Perspectives include political economy, aesthetics, and social change.

Graduate Courses in S&T Policy

Courses currently taught as special topics:

Careers and Workplaces in Science and Technology
Biotechnology Law, Policy & Ethics
Biomedical Law, Policy & Ethics

• PUBP 6111 - Internet & Public Policy
  Analyzes policy implications of Internet architecture (Internet protocols, domain name system, packet switching, peer-to-peer) and surveys policy issues about content, privacy, intellectual property, and governance.
• PUBP 6401 - Science, Technology & Public Policy
  Examines the relationships between science, technology, and government, including policies for support, control, and application of science and technology.
• PUBP 6402 - Research Policy & Mgt
  Examines challenges in research policy and management. The research activities of public, private, and not-for-profit organizations are contrasted in examining strategic planning, allocation of resources, technology transfer, and research evaluation practices.
• PUBP 6403 - Scientific Careers and Workplaces
  Focuses on key social and organizational dimensions of scientific careers and workplace sectors (academia, industry, and government).
• PUBP 6440 - Science, Technology & Regulation
  Examines historical, legal, economic, and political rationales for regulation. Survey of administrative law and processes, risk analysis/management, expertise and public, and current topical issues.
• PUBP 6502 - IT, Communications and Telecom Policy
  Examines the convergence of information technology, communications and telecommunication, policymaking within the executive/regulatory branches, special interest group role, and key domestic and international issues.
• PUBP 6414 - Tech Innovation & Gov Policy
  Federal and state policies to stimulate innovation; sources and stimuli for innovation; role of universities and industry consortia; comparative innovation policy; evaluation of technology policy.
• PUBP 6415 - Technology Regions & Policy
  Explores concepts, issues, and policies related to regional development, economic development, industrial change, and technology policy.
• PUBP 6417 - Critical Perspectives on Science & Technology
  Seeks to stimulate students' critical thinking about science and technology and their relationships to markets, politics and societies.
• PUBP 6501 - Information Policy & Mgt
  Examines the information age from policy and management perspectives. The course will explore concepts and issues related to the formation and implementation of information policies.
• PUBP 6514 - Mass Communications Policy
  Traces the evolution of broadcasting, cable, and other mass media policies. Examines the functioning/impact of mass communications in a changing technological environment.
• PUBP 6740 - Innovation and the State
  The role of the state in industrial development, innovation and business-government relations. Special attention given to science and technology policies and their influence in different international and industrial contexts.
• PUBP 6741 Geography of Innovation
  Examines the growing discussion on the knowledge economy, learning regions, innovation capacity, and place management and what those strategies mean for regional economies.
• PUBP 6753 - Comparative Science & Technology Policy
  Examines the social, political, and cultural contexts of science and technology, and how they affect the research, development, and regulatory policies of nations.
• PUBP 8530 - Advanced Science & Technology Policy
  Overview of core literature and intellectual foundations of technology and science policy and theories of innovation.
• ECON 6440 - Economics of Technology
  This course explores the impact that innovation, technology progress, and R&D activities have upon a firm's pricing and output behavior and the economic role that firm size and entrepreneurial opportunities play in technological development and innovation.
• ECON 7031 - Micro of Innovation
  Historical evolution of institutions that promote innovation, knowledge as a public good, prizes and intellectual property rights as incentive mechanisms, models of cumulative innovation, patent and copyright enforcement and litigation, private versus public funding, and the effects introduced by network externalities and globalization issues.