Bioengineering/stem cells and society

Charis Thompson
UC Berkeley associate professor of rhetoric and of gender and women's studies, and director of the Science, Technology and Society Center. Thompson is the author of "Making Parents: The Ontological Choreography of Reproductive Technologies" (MIT Press, 2005) Her areas of interest include reproductive and genetic technologies and feminist theory.

Phone: (510) 642-8528
E-mail: charis@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Yasmin Anwar, (510) 643-7944 or yanwar@berkeley.edu

Richard Gilbert
Professor of economics with expertise in industrial organization and regulation, particularly the economics of research and development and intellectual property; antitrust policy and energy economics. He is a former deputy assistant attorney general for economics with the U.S. Justice Department. Gilbert is the author of a 2006 study of the state licensing income to be generated by California’s Proposition 71 stem cell initiative. He concluded that the income will be negligible.

Phone: (510) 642-1507
E-mail: gilbert@econ.berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Alta Charo
Bio-ethicist and visiting professor at UC Berkeley's School of Law (Boalt Hall). A leading authority on stem cells and law, Charo is teaching a course on stem cell and cloning research and related policy and politics.

Phone: (510) 643-6116 
E-mail: racharo@wisc.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651, kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Paul Rabinow
UC Berkeley anthropology professor and co-director of Thrust IV (ethics and ontology) at SynBerc, UC Berkeley's new synthetic biology center. He is also co-author of "A Machine to Make a Future: Biotech Chronicles."

Phone: (510) 642-2634
Email: rabinow@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

David Winickoff
UC Berkeley assistant professor of bioethics and society in the College of Natural Resources and associate director of the Science, Technology and Society Center. His research centers on the interaction of science and politics in the governance of health and the environment, with a particular focus on biotechnology and the law.

Phone: (510) 643-0319
Email: david_winickoff@nature.berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741 or scyang@berkeley.edu

Irina Conboy
UC Berkeley assistant professor of bioengineering who received funding from the non-profit, Maryland-based Stem Cell Research Foundation and hopes to open her lab for periodic public tours. She uses stem cell science to combat degenerative diseases that come with aging.

Phone: (510) 665-3671
Email: iconboy@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741 or scyang@berkeley.edu