UNH Speakers Bureau

Advocates, Agendas, and Nay-Sayers: Science and Technology in the Public Arena

 

Program Description:

Science and technology play major roles in our lives. We directly and indirectly make decisions about what we think to be true, likely to be true, exaggerated, or false. This may involve decisions to spend extra to purchase “totally organic foods,” choose to inoculate children against disease, or how to power one’s house. We vote on policy by supporting candidates and government initiatives on incredibly complex issues, including climate change, federal regulation of food and drugs, nuclear power, and off-shore oil drilling. Greenberg discusses the need to critically assess the avalanche of information we receive on a daily (even hourly) basis from a wide array of sources having a wide array of credibility.


Speaker:

Arthur Greenberg

Arthur Greenberg is a professor of organic chemistry at the University of New Hampshire. He joined UNH in 2000 as dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences and served a full five-year term in this position. Prior to that he was Chair of the Department of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (1994-2000) and this followed five years as Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and his current research interests include physical organic chemistry and environmental organic chemistry. He has published 120 refereed papers and book chapters, authored 5 books, and edited 18 books.

Other topics offered by Arthur Greenberg