The Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) is delighted to announce it has awarded the STS Infrastructure Award 2022 to eight people who have been the administrative and editorial pillars of our Society and field in recent years.
The committee members recognize that a professional society is a function of the labor of its members and staff. The work of the award recipients, over different periods in recent decades, has made enormous contributions to every aspect of 4S‘ operations. The administrative service to 4S of Wes Shrum began in 1987 as Secretary/Treasurer. In 2013, he became Meetings Planner. He has been the lynchpin of 4S operations, serving with an astounding 18 consecutive Presidents. Wes has organized annual meetings, implemented policy decisions, saw the society grow from a few hundred to over two thousand, and saw the shift of 4S operations into the digital age. Over the years, the remainder of the core administrative team joined Wes. Stephen Zehr was 4S Secretary from 2013 to 2021 after completing a term on 4S Council. He ensured the smooth running of 4S Council and Business meetings, elections and much else. Paige Miller began as Assistant Treasurer to Wes in 2008 and served as Treasurer from 2013 until 2021. She kept 4S‘ finances in order and diligently ensured payments. Steve Coffee served as 4S Webmaster from 2006 to 2022. He was responsible for supporting the vast majority of 4S infrastructure, from membership systems, abstract submission, registration payments, and our monthly Technoscience newsletter, to responding to thousands of queries from members. The society has grown and prospered thanks to their work.
The editorial service to 4S of the remaining awardees has been central to 4S and STS publications in recent years. This period has seen the Society‘s subscription journal Science, Technology and Human Values (ST&HV) go from strength to strength, with steadily increasing citations and a current 5-year Impact Factor (IF) of 4.5, a highly impressive figure in the social sciences. This success reflects the skill and hard work of Edward Hackett, who was Editor of the journal from 2012 to 2022, and Katie Vann, who served as Managing Editor with Ed. Katie was also inaugural Managing Editor for the Society‘s Open Access (OA) journal Engaging Science, Technology, and Society (ESTS), serving with founding Editor Daniel Lee Kleinman from 2015. This bold undertaking has positioned 4S and STS central to OA publishing and enabled experimentation with style and content that has expanded the field. We also recognize the vast and wide-ranging contributions of Sergio
Sismondo who served as Editor of Social Studies of Science from 2012 to 2022. The journal has long been affiliated with 4S and has a similar reach and impact to ST&HV.
In addition to the extensive roles outlined here, many of the nominees have also served on 4S Council and taken up multiple committee positions. The committee unanimously agreed that the 4S Infrastructure Prize is a fitting recognition of the enormous amount of labor, time and care the nominees have contributed to our Society and the field of STS.
Stephen Zehr is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Southern Indiana. He has served as a program officer in the NSF STS program and as a Council member and secretary of 4S. His research addresses environmental controversies and their representation in media and policy settings. For the past 20 years his research and teaching have focused on the climate change controversy.
Edward J. Hackett is professor emeritus in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University, where he has also held appointments in the School of Sustainability, School of Life Sciences, and the Consortium for Science Policy & Outcomes. From 2015-2020 he was vice provost for research at Brandeis University and professor in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. He was a founding member of the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1984 to 1998) and the first director of the NSF Program in Science and Technology Studies (1996-98), which succeeded the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science. Again as an NSF rotator, he directed the Division of Social and Economic Sciences (2006 to 2008). He was lead editor of the Handbook of Science and Technology Studies (3rd ed., MIT Press, 2008) and editor of Science, Technology, & Human Values (2012-2022).
Hackett studies the social organization and dynamics of scientific research, asking how patterns of interaction, leadership, interdisciplinary collaboration, and other factors influence the production of knowledge. He has also written about peer review, research misconduct, the scientific career, and environmental justice. His work has been published in the American Sociological Review, Research Policy, Science, Technology & Human Values, Social Studies of Science, Sociological Methods and Research, and other places. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and twice was recognized by the Society for Social Studies of Science for contributions to infrastructure.
2020: Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience
2018: East Asian Science, Technology and Society: an International Journal (EASTS)
2017: Editors of the Handbooks of Science and Technology Studies
2016: WTMC (Netherlands Graduate Research School of Science, Technology and Modern Culture)