Center for Nanotechnology in Society

History

The Center received its first five years of funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation. The Center aims to disseminate both its technological and social scientific findings on nanoscale science to policymakers and those outside the nano field, and to facilitate broader public participation in the nanotechnological enterprise. It does this through public engagement between academic researchers with regulators, educators, industrial scientists, and policy makers, as well as community-based organizations and NGOs. The Center’s education and outreach programs include students and people outside the nanotech field.

Focus

The Center has three main areas of research:

1. the historical context of the nano-enterprise;
2. innovation processes and global diffusion of nanotech;
3. risk perception and the public sphere.

Partnerships

CNS–UCSB researchers collaborate with the California NanoSystems Institute, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, the Science History Institute (formerly the Chemical Heritage Foundation), Duke University, Rice University, SUNY Levin Institute, and SUNY New Paltz in the US, and Cardiff University, UK, University of British Columbia, Canada, University of Edinburgh, UK, University of East Anglia, UK, as well as institutes and centers in China and East Asia.

References

References

1. [http://www.cns.ucsb.edu/about "About CNS–UCSB"] {{Webarchive. link. (2011-03-07 Center for Nanotechnology in Society, accessed May 2011.)
2. (2010). "Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Society". SAGE Publications.
3. (2007). "Nanomaterials and Nanoparticles: Sources and Toxicity". Biointerphases.