News & Announcements

On February 19, the Technology and Public Purpose Project (TAPP) convened the second session of the spring semester for the Boston Tech Hub Faculty Working Group. This monthly meeting convenes faculty from across Harvard and MIT in disciplines of engineering, business, law, government, computer science, biology, and medicine to explore the intersections of technological innovation and risks and benefits to society. This month, the group discussed the topic “Do Venture Capitalists have a Public Purpose Responsibility for Emerging Technology?” 

The Technology and Public Purpose Project held a discussion on “Responsible AI: A Guide to the Future” with Joi Ito, Director of the MIT Media Lab and a panel of distinguished speakers working on innovative and emerging AI-based technologies.

CAMBRIDGE MA – Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has convened the inaugural meeting of The Council on the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a new effort to address critical questions about this far-reaching and rapidly evolving application for data and technology.  

“It was too quiet.”

That was the sentiment expressed by a number of the 45 election officials from 23 states who gathered earlier this month at Harvard for a Belfer Center Defending Digital Democracy (D3P) Midterm After-Action Conference to discuss problems around their November midterm elections.  Most said they experienced significant but mostly unintended misinformation – and some disinformation – along with a number of other challenges to their electoral processes, but not the extensive foreign cyber and other attacks that took place during the 2016 presidential election.

Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has named General (ret.) Lori J. Robinson a non-resident Senior Fellow. After 37 years of military service, Gen. Robinson retired this year as Commander, United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Professor Venkatesh "Venky" Narayanamurti is the Benjamin Peirce Research Professor of Technology and Public Policy at Harvard University, former dean of the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and former director of the Belfer Center's Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program. The award is one of the highest honors given by the National Academy of Engineering, and recognizes an engineer who has shown dedication in science and technology as well as active involvement in determining U.S. science and technology policy.

Our colleague Calestous Juma—who passed away on December 15 at age 64 after a long illness—was a pioneering, prolific, and influential scholar/practitioner in science and technology policy for sustainable well-being. He joined Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) in 1999 as Director of the Science, Technology, and Innovation Project (a joint venture of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Center for International Development) and became Professor of the Practice of International Development in 2002, a position in which he maintained his exceptional productivity and engagement with policy, despite illness, up to the time of his death.

John P. Holdren, Co-Director of the Belfer Center’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, and former Science Advisor to President Obama and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (2009-2017), has been awarded the 2018 Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize. The highly prestigious award is presented annually by The American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) to “a leading policy-maker, social scientist, or public intellectual whose career demonstrates the value of using social science evidence to improve the human condition.”

Postdoctoral Fellow Ben Buchanan was interviewed by Alyza Sebanius for The Atlantic on June 28, 2017. In his new book, The Cybersecurity Dilemma, Dr. Buchanan argues that the line between offensive and defensive attacks is far from clear.

"The scientific community needs to more effectively speak out about the necessity of evidence-based policies, scientific integrity protections and public access to research to defend the role of science, said John Holdren, former White House science adviser, in a speech on the eve of the April 22nd March for Science."