Hi Reddit! I’m Megan J. Palmer, a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University. I lead a research program focused on governing risk in biotechnology and other emerging technologies. Before moving to Stanford, I served for 5 years as the Deputy Director of the policy-related research program of the multi-university Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (Synberc). I was also previously a research scientist at the California Center for Quantitative Bioscience at UC Berkeley, and an affiliate of Lawrence Berkeley National Labs.
I believe that getting diverse communities working in biotechnology more involved in policy discussions is vital to developing the quickly advancing field responsibly and building global leadership to prepare for and respond to inevitable surprise. I founded and serve as Executive Director of the Synthetic Biology Leadership Excellence Accelerator Program (LEAP), which is an international fellowship program in responsible biotechnology leadership. I also lead programs in safety and responsible innovation (which we call ‘Human Practices’) for the international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. I advise various organizations on their approach to biotechnology policy, including serving on the board of the synthetic biology program of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genomics Institute (JGI).
Before moving into policy I trained as a scientist and engineer. My Ph.D. is in in Biological Engineering from MIT, and I was a postdoctoral scholar in the Bioengineering Department at Stanford University. I received a B.Sc.E. in Engineering Chemistry from Queen’s University, in Kingston, Canada.
Ask me anything about synthetic biology and the responsible development of biotechnology!
Hi Reddit! I'll be online for the next hour (10-11am PT) to answer your questions!
These are great questions - I'll stick around until 11:30 PT to answer a few more.
I'll be back online later this afternoon so feel free to keep asking away! (~2:30 PT)
Thanks Reddit for all our your great questions. I wish I had been able to get to them all! I hope some of the information and resources I've linked to will keep you engaged in this exciting area of work. Until next time! Cheers - Megan
Hey y'all!
In case you didn't know, there's a great (and growing) multi-campus research unit based at UCSD called the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) that does a lot of great research, training, and engagement on topics such as development and conflict, authoritarian regional organizations, misinformation/disinformation, nuclear security, great powers competition, tech competition, and other topics related to global security. If you're a international studies, political science, economics, or other related major, they may be worth keeping up with, especially if you want to do research! https://www.instagram.com/igcc_uc/
