Jason A. Delborne joined NC State in August 2013 as a Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program cluster hire in Genetic Engineering and Society (GES) and an associate professor of science, policy and society in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources. He also serves on the executive committee of the Genetic Engineering and Society Center. Delborne’s research focuses on highly politicized scientific controversies, drawing upon the interdisciplinary field of science, technology, and society (STS). He engages various qualitative research methodologies to ask questions about how policymakers and members of the public interface with controversial science.
Delborne has published peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Social Studies of Science, Public Understanding of Science, and Science and Public Policy, and he co-edited “Controversies in Science and Technology: From Evolution to Energy” (Mary Ann Liebert, 2010). He serves on the editorial boards of Science Communication and Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. In 2010, he received the David Edge Prize, awarded annually by the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) for the best journal article published in the area of science and technology studies. Delborne recently completed service on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee that evaluated the prospects for gene drive research in non-human organisms. The committee’s report, released in May 2016, was titled Gene Drives on the Horizon: Advancing Science, Navigating Uncertainty, and Aligning Research with Public Values.