I hold a Canada Research Chair in Science and Society in Sociology at University of Ottawa with close affiliation to the Institute for Science, Society and Society (ISSP.uottawa.ca). I study and intervene into science-society tensions that erupt around technologies–GMOs, fracking, big data & AI—and their governance. I aim to bring community values into conversation with technical knowledge in the production of evidence-informed decision-making. My policy experience involves advising government and serving on expert panel committees like the Council of Canadian Academies (link to report). I have been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as well as a wide variety of private foundations. I have published my work in regional (Journal of New Brunswick Studies), national (Canadian Journal of Communication) and international journals (Science Communication, Journal of Responsible Innovation, Big Data and Society) and frequently get called on to mobilize my findings in public settings from Café Scientifique to mainstream media like TVO’s The Agenda.

Before joining the University of Ottawa, I was the Director of a Science and Technology Studies program at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, Canada. Before that I received a PhD from Communication and Cultural Studies from York University, Toronto, as well as a Master’s degree in Sociology of Technology from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Before my training in the social sciences, I earned degrees in biology and worked as a lab bench scientist practicing genetics/plant biology (Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada).