Science, Technology, and Public Policy

Contrary to popular perception, the Arctic is not a desolate wilderness: four million people call the Arctic home, two-thirds of whom reside in urban settlements. Like the region as a whole, the rapid pace of climate change is making life in Arctic cities—challenging at the best of times due to winter darkness, remoteness, and cold weather—increasingly difficult. Climate-induced hazards, such as permafrost thaw, sea ice loss, sea level rise, erosion, flooding, and wildfires, pose severe risks to urban infrastructure and the health and livelihoods of urban residents. 

Please join Harvard Kennedy School’s Arctic Initiative and the Arctic Mayors’ Forum for a virtual seminar that will explore how Arctic cities are addressing the current and future impacts of climate change, as well as the lessons that Arctic cities and other cities elsewhere in the world can learn from each other’s experiences. The panel will feature Ida Maria Pinnerød, Mayor of Bodø, Norway; Annika Myrén, Development Strategist of the City of Umeå, Sweden; and Bryce Ward, Mayor of Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska. Arctic Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellow Nadezhda Filimonova will moderate. Q&A to follow. 

Attendance: This event is open to the public and hosted on Zoom. For those who cannot attend live, the seminar will be recorded and available to watch on this page (typically within two weeks). Those who register for this event will automatically receive a link to the recording as soon as it becomes available.

Accessibility: To request a disability accommodation or for questions about access, please contact Elizabeth Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the seminar.

Please join the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program for an AI Cyber Lunch Seminar featuring Pamela Smith, President and CEO of Verified Voting. Smith will give a talk entitled "Justified Confidence: The Role of Trust in Elections."

Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.

Registration: No RSVP is required for in-person attendance. Room capacity is limited and seating will be on a first come, first served basis. Members of the public are welcome to attend virtually via Zoom. Virtual attendees should register using the button below; upon registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link. 

Recording: Please be advised that this seminar will not be recorded.

Accessibility: To request accommodations or for questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Please join the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program for an AI Cyber Lunch Seminar featuring Eva Galperin, Director of Cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Galperin will give a talk entitled "Who Deserves Cybersecurity? How We've Been Doing Cybersecurity All Wrong and How We Can Fix It."

Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.

Registration: In-person attendance is limited to current Harvard ID holders. No RSVP is required. Room capacity is limited and seating will be on a first come, first served basis.

Members of the public are welcome to attend virtually via Zoom. Virtual attendees should register using the button below; upon registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link. 

Recording: Please be advised that this seminar will not be recorded.

Accessibility: Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

What if racism, sexism, and ableism aren't just glitches in mostly functional machinery—what if they're coded into our technological systems?

Please join the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program for an AI Cyber Lunch Seminar featuring Meredith Broussard, Associate Professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University. In a talk entitled "Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech," Broussard will explore why neutrality in tech is a myth and how algorithms can be held accountable.

Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.

Registration: In-person attendance is limited to current Harvard ID holders. No RSVP is required. Room capacity is limited and seating will be on a first come, first served basis.

Members of the public are welcome to attend virtually via Zoom. Virtual attendees should register using the button below; upon registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link. 

Recording: Please be advised that this seminar will not be recorded.

Accessibility: Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Please join the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program for an AI Cyber Lunch Seminar featuring Daniel Weitzner, 3Com Founders Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Founding Director of the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative. In a talk entitled "Black Hat, White Hat, Green Eyeshades: Improving Cybersecurity through Risk Pricing Models," Weitzner will discuss the benefits of (currently unattainable) cyber risk pricing metrics and a new approach for achieving them.

Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.

Registration: In-person attendance is limited to current Harvard ID holders. No RSVP is required. Room capacity is limited and seating will be on a first come, first served basis.

Members of the public are welcome to attend virtually via Zoom. Virtual attendees should register using the button below; upon registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link. 

Recording: Please be advised that this seminar will not be recorded.

Accessibility: Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Join us for an Energy Policy Seminar featuring Eyck Freymann, joint Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Belfer Center's Arctic Initiative and Columbia University. Freymann will give a talk on "Chinese Perspectives on Climate Geopolitics." Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.

Registration: No RSVP is required. Room capacity is limited and seating will be on a first come, first served basis. The seminar will also be streamed via Zoom. Virtual attendees should register using the button below; upon registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link. 

Recording: The seminar will be recorded and available to watch on this page (typically one week later). Those who register for this event will automatically receive a link to the recording as soon as it becomes available.

Accessibility: Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Sponsors: The Belfer Center's Environment and Natural Resources Program, the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, the Harvard University Center for the Environment, the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability

Russia’s preparation for malicious cyber activities began long before the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In fact, one could argue that preparations and operations have been executing for more than a decade. 

Please join the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program for an AI Cyber Lunch Seminar featuring Melissa Hathaway, President of Hathaway Global Strategies and former Senior Advisor to the Belfer Center's Cyber Project. In a talk entitled "Malicious Cyber Activities: Russia-Ukraine and the Surrounding Territories," Hathaway will discuss how Russia has honed its precision operations through a sophisticated execution and conquer of targets and access.

Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.

Registration: In-person attendance is limited to current Harvard ID holders. No RSVP is required. Room capacity is limited and seating will be on a first come, first served basis.

Members of the public are welcome to attend virtually via Zoom. Virtual attendees should register using the button below; upon registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link. 

Recording: Please be advised that this seminar will not be recorded.

Accessibility: Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Please join the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program for an AI Cyber Lunch Seminar featuring Marc Rotenberg, founder and president of the Center for AI and Digital Policy. Rotenberg will give a talk entitled "The Emergence of Legal Norms for the Governance of AI."

Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.

Registration: In-person attendance is limited to current Harvard ID holders. No RSVP is required. Room capacity is limited and seating will be on a first come, first served basis.

Members of the public are welcome to attend virtually via Zoom. Virtual attendees should register using the button below; upon registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link. 

Recording: Please be advised that this seminar will not be recorded.

Accessibility: Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Speaker: David M. Allison, Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom

As geopolitical and technological shifts challenge the underpinnings of nuclear deterrence, the implications of a nuclear taboo become increasingly important. Crucially, if the prohibition against nuclear use is binding, improved counterforce capabilities should have no effect on support for use. This seminar presents the results of a series of experiments designed to identify taboo believers and measure the durability of their commitment to nuclear non-use by increasing their perceptions of the military effectiveness of counterforce strikes. 

Everyone is welcome to join us online via Zoom! Please register in advance for this seminar: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUvc-uorTkoG9C3zILDI0wrhkBFNJWCkWIU

Please join the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program for an AI Cyber Lunch Seminar featuring Piotr Sapiezynski, Associate Research Scientist at the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University. In a talk entitled "Discrimination Through Optimization," Sapiezynski will discuss the role of online advertising platforms' delivery optimization processes in perpetuating - and potentially preventing - discrimination in digital advertising.

Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.

Registration: In-person attendance is limited to current Harvard ID holders. No RSVP is required. Room capacity is limited and seating will be on a first come, first served basis.

Members of the public are welcome to attend virtually via Zoom. Virtual attendees should register using the button below; upon registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link. 

Recording: Please be advised that this seminar will not be recorded.

Accessibility: Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.