Ethics and regulation in nanotechnology workshop

Aug 29, 2006

How can nanotechnology be developed for societal benefit? What role should researchers play in debates about regulation of nanoscience/nanotechnology?

These were some of the questions examined at an Ethics and Regulation Workshop held recently at the University of Wollongong.

A similar workshop is being held tomorrow (30 August) at Monash University.

The workshops are targeted for early career researchers working in the nanotechnology area.

The workshops provide participants with an introduction to some emerging ethical and regulatory issues in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

They also provide an opportunity to develop skills in identifying and articulating responses to ethical and regulatory issues through case studies as well as meeting, debating and hearing the views of Australian researchers and practitioners in nanoethics and nanoregulation.

Speakers at the UOW workshop included Professor John Weckert who is a Professor of Information Technology in the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University and a professorial fellow of the ARC Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics.

He is editor of the forthcoming journal NanoEthics: Ethics for Technologies that converge at the nanoscale to be published by Springer from 2007.

Another invited speaker was Peter Binks who is Chief Executive Officer of Nanotechnology Victoria Limited and one of Australia's leaders in the commercialisation of nanotechnologies.

The convener for the UOW workshop was Professor Susan Dodds from the Faculty of Arts.