[Nettime-bold] hybrid vigor institute looking into interdisciplinary research methods

[geert lovink <geert {AT} desk.nl>]

From: "Denise Caruso" <caruso {AT} hybridvigor.org>
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 11:28 AM
Subject: Hybrid Vigor Institute receives NSF grant

HYBRID VIGOR INSTITUTE AWARDED NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION GRANT TO 
STUDY INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH NETWORKS AND METHODS

CONTACT:  Denise Caruso or Diana Rhoten
The Hybrid Vigor Institute
+1 (415) 543-8113
mailto:caruso {AT} hybridvigor.org
mailto:rhoten {AT} hybridvigor.org

28 February 2002

SAN FRANCISCO - The Hybrid Vigor Institute has been awarded $253,490 
by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct a one-year pilot 
study of interdisciplinary research methods.

The Hybrid Vigor Institute, founded in 2000, is a non-profit research 
organization dedicated to demonstrating and encouraging the practice 
of new, inclusive methods of problem solving and inquiry.

The study, titled "A Multi-Method Analysis of the Social and 
Technical Conditions for Interdisciplinary Collaboration," will 
investigate the social networks and anthropological conditions for 
interdisciplinary research at eight environmental research centers in 
the United States.

"We are delighted that the NSF is supporting this groundbreaking 
work," said Diana Rhoten, Ph.D., managing director of the Hybrid 
Vigor Institute, former director of the Master's program in 
international comparative education and an assistant professor in the 
School of Education at Stanford University. "Very little is known 
today about the mechanics of interdisciplinary research, yet the 
critical social, cultural and scientific questions that confront us 
today require an interdisciplinary approach. This project is a vital 
first step in learning how to conduct this type of research most 
effectively."

Principal investigators for the study are Dr. Rhoten; Julian Orr, 
Ph.D., an organizational ethnographer formerly of Xerox PARC, and 
author of the book, "Talking About Machines: An Ethnography of a 
Modern Job"; and Denise Caruso, executive director of the Hybrid 
Vigor Institute.

Faculty advisors for the grant are:  John Seely Brown, Ph.D., former 
director of  Xerox PARC, and co-founder of the Institute for Research 
on Learning; Lisa Faithorn, Ph.D., manager of collaborative research, 
NASA Astrobiology Institute; Claire Fraser, Ph.D., president of The 
Institute for Genomic Research; Walter Powell, Ph.D., professor of 
education and affiliated professor of sociology and organizational 
behavior, Stanford University, and external professor, Santa Fe 
Institute; Denis Prager, Ph.D., president of Strategic Consulting 
Services and former director of health programs, the MacArthur 
Foundation; Steven Schneider, Ph.D., professor of biology and senior 
fellow of the Institute for International Studies, Stanford 
University; Margaret Somerville, Ph.D., professor of law and of 
medicine, McGill University, Montreal, founding director of the 
McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, and co-editor of 
"Trandisciplinarity: reCreating Integrated Knowledge"; Richard Zare, 
Ph.D., professor of chemistry, Stanford University, former chair 
National Science Board, co-founder of Stanford's Bio-X Program for 
Bioengineering, Biomedicine and Biosciences.

The NSF award was granted through the Division of Behavioral and 
Cognitive Sciences.

For information on the NSF study, contact Diana Rhoten, Ph.D., at +1 
415 543-8113, or via email at mailto:rhoten {AT} hybridvigor.org.

The goal of the Hybrid Vigor Institute is to develop and codify a 
series of best practices for interdisciplinary research. Its focus is 
on questions which reside in the realms of earth systems and the 
environment; health determinants; human "perception", broadly 
defined; and interdisciplinary practice.

Serving on the board of directors of the Hybrid Vigor Institute are:

* Mark Anderson, president of Technology Alliance Partners and of 
Strategic News Service, the most accurate predictive newsletter 
covering the computing and communications industries, member of the 
Merrill Lynch TechBrains advisory board and a principal in the 
investment advisory firm Resonance Capital Management;

* Roger Brent, Ph.D, director and chair of the nonprofit Molecular 
Sciences Institute in Berkeley, which he co-founded with Sydney 
Brenner after more than 20 years as a professor at Massachusetts 
General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and advisor to various 
corporate and governmental bodies in the U.S. and abroad on 
functional genomics and computational biology;

* Katherine Fulton, a principal with Global Business Network, leading 
scenario, strategy and change projects in areas including publishing, 
financial services, education, health care, social services, 
telecommunications, broadcasting, consumer products, and philanthropy;

* Thomas Kalil, Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Science and 
Technology at UC Berkeley, charged with developing major new 
multi-disciplinary research and education initiatives, previously the 
Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Technology and Economic 
Policy, and the Deputy Director of the White House National Economic 
Council;

* Richard Miller, who participated in some of the earliest technical 
design and development of computer based messaging and computer 
conferencing, now president of co-founded Breo Ventures LLC, a 
venture accelerator firm and consultancy which he co-founded; and

* Paul Rabinow, Ph.D., one of the most highly regarded cultural 
anthropologists in the field, professor (and former department chair) 
of anthropology at the UC Berkeley, where he has taught since 1978, 
and recipient of several fellowships, including a Guggenheim in 1980.

Serving on the Hybrid Vigor Advisory Council are:

* Nancy Adler, Ph.D., a professor of medical psychology in the 
departments of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of 
California San Francisco, and chair of the MacArthur Research Network 
on socioeconomic status and health;

* Andrew Blau, a consultant and strategist working with foundations 
to develop programs at the intersection of information technology and 
society;

* Stewart Brand, co-founder and managing director of Global Business 
Network, president of The Long Now Foundation, and member of the 
Board of Trustees of the Santa Fe Institute;

* Brian Greene, Ph.D., professor of physics and mathematics at 
Columbia University, author of the bestseller "The Elegant Universe", 
and former director of the Theoretical Advanced Study Institute;

* Michael Lerner, Ph.D., is a former Yale professor, recipient of a 
MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Fellowship, co-founder of the 
Commonweal Cancer Help Program and author of "Choices in Healing: 
Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complimentary Approaches to 
Cancer";

* Bruce McEwen, Ph.D, is the Alfred E. Mirsky Professor at 
Rockefeller University and head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken 
Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, heralded for making major 
scientific contributions to the field of neuroscience;
 
* Margaret Somerville, Ph.D., professor in both the Faculty of Law 
and the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, Montreal, founding 
director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, and 
co-editor of a book called "Trandisciplinarity: reCreating Integrated 
Knowledge";

* Richard Zare, Ph.D., the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in 
Natural Science at Stanford University, former chair National Science 
Board, council member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a 
co-founder of Stanford's Bio-X Program for Bioengineering, 
Biomedicine and Biosciences.

More information on the Institute can be found at 
http://hybridvigor.org, by contacting Denise Caruso, executive 
director, at +1 415 543-8113, or via email at 
mailto:caruso {AT} hybridvigor.org.

-- 
Denise Caruso
Founder & Executive Director
The Hybrid Vigor Institute
+1 415.543.8113 vox/fax
http://hybridvigor.org


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